EPDE2020/1204 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION 10-11 SEPTEMBER 2020, VIA DESIGN, VIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, HERNING, DENMARK VISUAL BOARDS: MOOD BOARD, STYLE BOARD OR CONCEPT BOARD? Julie Elert MUNK, Jesper Sønderskov SØRENSEN and Linda Nhu LAURSEN Aalborg University, Denmark ABSTRACT In this paper, we research the usage of visual boards. Visual boards are an important part of navigating a design process. The two most known visual boards are mood boards and style boards, which are well described in literature [3]. However specific for industrial design practice are concept boards. While these boards are commonly used in practice, where they serve as central tools for developing and communicating concept ideas, they have received proportionally less attention in literature. Even though the theory recognises the existence of concept boards, knowledge of the content, development and use of these is still limited. Through case studies at two industrial design consultancies, we scrutinize 33 different visual boards made by design students and analyse the feedback they get from professional senior designers. In the analysis, we find concept boards are the most frequent and most central type of boards used, yet knowledge of them compared to style and mood board is scarce [2]. By scrutinizing the process of creating and receiving feedback on concepts boards in industrial design, we find three key elements and considerations for creating a productive concept board. For practice, we provide key considerations important for creating useful concept boards. We believe these may be valuable for both students and instructors of industrial design, that needs to understand or teach how to develop concept boards. Keywords: Visual boards, mood board, style board, concept boards 1 INTRODUCTION Progress in the design process is often driven by and communicated using visual tool [1]. A central tool in the visual development and communication are visual boards, whereof the most known are mood boards and style boards. Several studies have contributed with knowledge of the nature of mood boards and style boards, in terms of content and use in the process [2], [3], [4]. Visual objects have an active role in organising the process, to make it possible to balance coordination as well as creative freedom [5]. However particular for industrial design practice are the use and centrality of concept boards. While these boards are briefly mentioned in other studies theory provides little knowledge of the elements, content and utilisation of these boards. Concept boards may be defined as a type of visual board, which explores, communicates or examines a concept or parts of a concept. Even though the theory recognises the existence of concept boards, knowledge of the content, development and use of these is still limited. In many cases these concept boards are developed by the more junior designers at a design agency, where after the concept boards then receive feedback from the senior designer and this feedback influence the further process. Navigating and communicating visual boards in a creative design process is a challenging and abstract task that many novice designers and design students struggle with every day. Every time a board is created, is presented and gets feedback, it is changing the project, which means it is either pushing it forwards or taking it a step backwards. Thus, finding and providing explicit insights on what constitutes a useful and productive concept board is valuable for enhancing the use of concept boards in the design process. These concept boards are commonly used in practice, where they serve as central tools for developing and communicating concept ideas, however they have received proportionally less attention in literature. The study is divided into three steps: First, the theory on visual boards within the field of design has been reviewed to establish the theoretical foundation of the paper. The theory has been gathered in a model that visualizes their connection in a design process. Secondly, we analyse the use of visual boards in two industrial design studios. This will help design students to understand how to create and use the appropriate and suitable visual boards. Our contribution to the existing theory is a line of recommendations for design students and instructors to be aware in the type of visual boards deployed