Per-project boards
One Space per active client or project. Inspiration stays with its context, not in a separate app.
Mood Board
Inspiration That Actually Compounds
Screenshots, design refs, color palettes, typography, and links saved with one shortcut. Mindly clusters by visual theme and lets you build mood boards as you scroll.
How it works
How Mindly builds a mood board
- See something inspiring? Screenshot or save the link with ⌘M. Mindly stores it with the source, preview, and metadata.
- AI tags by visual theme, color palette, content type, and mood. Multiple tags per item, accurate without setup.
- Group items into Spaces per project, or let the mind map surface clusters automatically.
- Pull a mood board into a brief or presentation. Mindly exports the references with sources intact.
When to use it
Where a mood board library pays off
Personal aesthetic
Years of refs that show your taste evolve. The mind map maps the patterns you didn't know you had.
Brief kickoff
New project lands, pull related saved items in two minutes flat. No more "I saw something like this last summer".
Type, color, and layout
AI tags surface the type pairing you saved in March when you need it in October.
Client presentations
Pull every reference behind a direction in one search and walk the client through the visual argument, with the brief and feedback in the same Space.
Competitor and market visuals
Screenshots of what everyone else ships, tagged by what they contain, so the landscape review is a search instead of a scavenger hunt.
Why it works
What a working mood board actually needs
Collect from anywhere, not one platform
Inspiration does not live on a single site. Screenshot a detail, save a link, drop in an image file, and it all lands in one library with one shortcut, so the collection reflects everything you actually see, not just what one platform showed you.
AI tags what is in the image
Mindly reads your saves and tags them by theme, so the collection organizes itself by what the images actually are, and finding every reference for a direction takes one search instead of a scroll through hundreds of thumbnails.
References sit next to the project
A mood board detached from the work is decoration. In Mindly the visual references live in the same library as the brief, the notes, and the client feedback, grouped into a Space per project, so the inspiration stays attached to what it is for.
Yours, offline, and permanent
Platform boards break when posts get deleted or accounts go private. Your library lives in a folder on your Mac, so the reference you saved two years ago is still there when a new project needs exactly that direction.
Why it matters
Why Pinterest isn't a mood board
Pinterest is a feed. A real mood board lives next to your project context, your notes, your client docs, your sketches. Mindly puts inspiration alongside the work it informs, with AI tagging that makes years of saved refs searchable by visual theme, not just by board title.
Common questions
Mood board FAQ
How is this better than a Pinterest board?
Pinterest collects from Pinterest and organizes by board. Mindly collects from anywhere (screenshots, links, files) and tags each save by what it actually contains, so you search your references by meaning, keep them next to project notes, and never lose one to a deleted post.
Can Mindly organize images automatically?
Yes. AI reads each image, including the text inside screenshots, and applies theme tags, so the board sorts itself as it grows and any reference is a search away.
Can I keep separate boards per project?
Yes. Group saves into a Space per project, while search and connections still work across all of them, so a reference from an old project resurfaces when a new one needs it.
What formats can I save?
Screenshots, images, links, PDFs, and notes all land in the same library through the same shortcut, so the mood board can hold the palette, the typeface reference, and the client brief together.
What is the best mood board app for Mac?
For a working library rather than a one-off collage, the requirements are collection from anywhere, automatic organization, and references that stay findable years later. Mindly does all three on macOS: one shortcut saves screenshots, links, and files from any source, AI tags each image by what it contains, and search by meaning brings the right reference back when a new project needs it.
Can I make a mood board without Pinterest?
Yes, and for professional work you probably should. Pinterest limits you to what its feed shows and its boards break when pins disappear. In Mindly you collect from anywhere on your Mac, the references live in a folder you own, and they sit next to the project brief and notes instead of on a platform built for browsing.
How many images can I keep for free?
The free tier supports up to 25 items and Mindly Pro removes the limit. If you stop using Pro, items beyond the free limit become read only rather than deleted, and you can always export.
Also in Mindly
Explore more
Related reading
Guides from the blog
Save your next ten inspirations here
Capture the next ten refs you'd normally bookmark. The clusters will surprise you.