How to Build a Brand Moodboard in Visual Electric

Most guides stop at “type a prompt, get a picture.” That is the easy part. The hard part is producing a coherent set of visuals that a client will sign off on, and doing it without burning 300 credits guessing.

Direct answer: build the board in three passes — reference pass (5-8 images to lock a direction), variation pass (expand the winner across formats), and consistency pass (outpaint and crop to a single palette). Each pass uses a different prompt pattern, and the whole thing takes about 45 minutes for one brand.

Why Does the Board Structure Matter?

Visual Electric is organised around boards, and boards are the unit of shared context. One board per client, not one board per asset. When you later need to show a range of treatments, everything sits in one scroll instead of five links.

Name the board with the client and the intended direction: Kestrel – warm editorial. Two weeks from now, “Untitled board 14” tells you nothing.

Pass 1: How Do You Find a Direction Fast?

1. Write the brief as five adjectives in plain language, then delete any that are opinions rather than visuals (“premium” out, “matte and low-contrast” in).
2. Run the same subject with three different light setups: hard daylight, overcast window, single warm lamp.
3. Generate on the fastest model first. Detail does not matter at this stage; silhouette and palette do.
4. Delete aggressively. Keep 6-8 images max. A board with 40 mediocre options makes it harder to choose.

A useful trick: pick your top image, then prompt same subject, [new material] repeatedly. You get variations that stay in the family instead of drifting.

Pass 2: How Do You Expand One Winner Across Formats?

Once a direction holds, you need the same look at 1:1 for social, 16:9 for web, 9:16 for stories. Set the aspect ratio before prompting — changing it afterwards costs a fresh generation and often shifts the composition.

Keep the prompt’s core nouns identical across ratios. Only the framing words change: “wide establishing shot” becomes “tight crop on the product shoulder.”

Pass 3: When Should You Outpaint Instead of Re-Prompting?

Outpainting wins when the image is right but too tight. Use it to extend canvas for headline space on a landing page hero — a real constraint most AI images fail, because generators centre the subject dead-middle and leave nowhere for text.

Re-prompting wins when the subject itself is wrong. There is no amount of outpaint that fixes a bad silhouette.

How Many Credits Does a Real Brand Board Cost?

From experience with mid-size projects: the reference pass is the expensive one. Roughly 12-20 generations to land a direction (48-80 images), then 6-10 more for ratio expansion. A single brand direction lands around 25-30 generations. Multiply by three if the client wants three routes explored.

The free starter credits will cover exactly one pass. Plan your paid month accordingly — do the reference pass, present, then subscribe only after the client picks a route.

What About Export and Handoff?

Export at the highest resolution your plan allows; the free tier is capped. Download into a folder structure by ratio, not by date. Include the winning prompts in a plain text file alongside — the next designer will need them, and prompt history is not something you can easily query later.

Who Should Not Use This Workflow?

Teams needing photoreal product shots of an existing physical SKU: synthetic renders still drift on logo placement and label text, and fixing that costs more time than a studio shoot. Same for anything requiring accurate typography in-image.

Key Takeaways

• One board per client, named by direction — boards are the shared context in Visual Electric.
• Three passes: reference (6-8 images), variation across ratios, then consistency fixes.
• Set aspect ratio before generating; changing it later wastes credits.
• One brand direction costs roughly 25-30 generations; budget for three if exploring routes.
• Outpaint for layout breathing room, re-prompt when the subject is wrong.