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Gen Z moodboard

6 Free Mood Boards That Embody Gen Z Aesthetics

These FREE customizable Gen Z mood boards allow you to share style ideas with your social media followers. Download now!

You can’t claim to be a part of Gen Z unless you’ve nailed your aesthetic. Y2K, Gothcore, you name it, there’s an ever-expanding variety of aesthetics to choose from, which can help you discover your ideal fashion, lifestyle, and beauty choices.

These free creative mood board templates can be customized with your own imagery, and are sized for social media to be used as Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, part of TikTok videos, or as Pinterest Pins.

You can also learn how to bring unique character to your templates with your own images using Shutterstock Create.

Photo collage of free fashion photo templates
Are you part of the Y2K tribe, or do you prefer the moody prep aesthetic of Dark Academia? Whatever your mood, these free templates will help you gather your ideas in style.

What’s Included in Your FREE Mood Board Bundle

This FREE mood board template bundle contains six stylish designs for creating gorgeous mood boards, ready-sized for uploading as Instagram Stories, Instagram posts, TikTok videos, or Pinterest pins.

Each design includes thematic textures to suit each aesthetic and super high-resolution, Polaroid-style image holders that you can use to add your own photos.

Gothcore fashion collage
Set a suitably gothic mood with this Gothcore-inspired mood board.

Your templates are provided as high-resolution JPEG images. All you need to do is drop in your own choice of photos and color swatches, and re-export the designs as JPEG images.

Then you can upload your mood board to social media or use in your design projects. Why not print a large-scale copy as a poster to hang up in your room?

The Gen Z aesthetics included in the mood board templates are:

  1. Dark Academia
  2. Indie Sleaze
  3. Gothcore
  4. Cottagecore
  5. Y2K
  6. Spacecore

You can also download photos from Shutterstock to add to your templates using an image editing app like Shutterstock Create or Photoshop.

Simply place your photos on top of the JPEG mood board and crop to fit the Polaroid. Check out a tutorial for doing just this in Shutterstock Create, below the download button.


Mood Board Templates Preview

Below, take a look at six mood board designs that allow you to showcase your chosen aesthetic.

Note that the preview images use suggested photos, and if you’d like to license these images in your own mood board, please refer to the image list included with your download.

These Polaroid mood board templates have been created for Shutterstock by our designer friends at Blue Whippet Studio.

Scroll down to preview the FREE template bundle, access your download, and read a handy tutorial for how to edit your templates using Shutterstock Create.

1. Dark Academia

A moodier and edgier take on preppy style, Dark Academia romanticizes higher education, giving the university aesthetic more depth and drama. Think candlelit library study sessions, impassioned discussions about classical literature, and plenty of tweed.

This template has a suitably bookish background to give the mood board a studious feel.

Gen Z moodboard
Gen Z moodboard
Dark Academia is a moody, edgy take on preppy styling and culture.

2. Indie Sleaze

Grubby and gritty, Indie Sleaze pays tribute to the heady days of indie music in the 2000s and 2010s. This aesthetic is all about a performative and grungy style with an edge of eroticism.

Leather jackets, ripped tights, and metallic makeup are an instant short-cut to nailing the trend. This mood board template has a grunge-inspired concrete background that wouldn’t look out of place on the wall of a gritty gig venue.

Grunge collage templates
Grunge collage templates
Revisit the glory days of indie with the gritty grunge of the Indie Sleaze aesthetic.

3. Gothcore

Sometimes referred to as “Goth Girlfriend,” Gothcore is 2022’s take on goth and emo styling, inspired by the dark and sexy fashion of celebrities like Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian.

Whether you prefer a more purist take on gothic style (the spookier the better) or like this sexier take on the moody aesthetic, this gloomy template will help you to achieve a suitably creepy mood board.

Gothcore mood board
Gothcore fashion collage
Creepy and sexy in equal measure, Gothcore celebrates everything spooky and alt-culture.

4. Cottagecore

A macro-trend that first began during the 2020 lockdown, Cottagecore is a romanticized take on rural living and pastimes.

This aesthetic is all about slowing down and reconnecting with simple, often outdoor activities such as woodwork, flower picking, or quilt-making.

This mood board template features a rustic linen backdrop and bleached-out lighting to set a homespun scene.

Cottagecore mood board
Cottagecore mood board
Simplistic and rustic, Cottagecore is inspired by a romantic take on outdoor living.

5. Y2K

Gen Z are a hyper-nostalgic generation, romanticizing even the most unromantic of eras—the early dotcom days of the mid-’90s and early 2000s.

The Y2K aesthetic cherry-picks the most dopamine traits of this era, such as pink velour, baguette bags, and micro-braids.

This unashamedly McBling mood board features a pink glitter background for showcasing your favorite Y2K inspo.

Y2K mood board
No taste is bad taste in the Y2K world. This mood board template is unashamedly bling.

6. Spacecore

Spacecore is inspired by—you guessed it—space! Aliens, planets, galaxies, and stars feature in the fashion and aesthetics of this trend.

Zendaya, star of sci-fi epic Dune, is the ultimate Spacecore muse, with her penchant for space-inspired couture.

This mood board serves up a dreamy, celestial backdrop for your space-themed imagery.

Spacecore mood board
Spacecore mood board
Bring a sci-fi edge to your mood board with this celestial Spacecore template.

How to Download Your FREE Mood Board Bundle

Click the button below to download your freebie mood board bundle. Once downloaded, double-click the ZIP file to unpackage its contents.

Inside the ZIP file, you’ll find three folders containing the templates as high-resolution JPEG images for Pinterest, Instagram Stories, and Instagram posts. You’ll also find a list of suggested images for bringing your templates to life.

This FREE download includes a license document that covers the ways you can use these clip art designs. Plus, you’ll find a coupon that gives you a 15% off discount on Shutterstock images and footage.

*By downloading this FREE template bundle, you agree not to resell or redistribute these assets.


How to Add Images to Your Mood Board Template Using Shutterstock Create

In this quick and easy tutorial, we’ll look at how you can create a video mood board in online editing app Shutterstock Create.

Don’t worry, if you haven’t used Shutterstock Create before, it’s very intuitive. Follow the simple steps below to create a high-impact mood board, even if you’re a beginner to the app.

Step 1

Go to Shutterstock Create and choose from one of the blank canvas options. Here, we’re going to make an Instagram Story, so click on that canvas.

Screenshot of how to choose canvas size in Create editor
Shutterstock Create allows you to create a huge range of templates for social media, online, and print.

Step 2

Go to Images > Upload in the left-hand toolbar. Navigate to the Instagram Stories folder in your freebie download and select one of the JPEG images inside.

Here, I’ve opted for Indie Sleaze. Click on the image to drop it onto the canvas.

Screenshot of how to upload an image in Create editor
Upload one of the mood board JPEGs to the Images dashboard.

You can now start to populate your mood board with photos. Go to Images as before, and either choose Stock Photos to browse thousands of images from the Shutterstock library, or click on Uploads to add your own images to your design.

Screenshot of example images for your canvas
Upload your own images or browse stock photos from the Shutterstock library to add to your canvas.

Once you’ve placed an image over one of the empty Polaroids, Right-Click > Crop image and drag the edges to fit inside the frame.

Screenshot of how to crop images in Create editor
Crop images to fit each Polaroid frame.
Screenshot of how to crop images in Create editor
Drag the handles on either side of each image to crop the photo.

Step 3

Once you’ve added images to your mood board, you can select them and click on Edit Element > Fade & Blend.

Choose Multiply for the Blend mode and increase the Fade a little to bring through some of the tape texture on the edge of each Polaroid.

Screenshot of how to apply the blend effect in Create editor
Bring the tape effect forward by applying a Multiply blend effect to your images.

Step 4

Once you’ve added all your images to the mood board, you can head up to the Download button at the top-right. Choose a suitable image format and resolution, and click Download again.

You can now upload this image to social media, great job!

Fashion mood board in Create editor
Complete your mood board with a full range of inspirational images.
Screenshot of how to download your mood board in Create editor
Download your mood board as a JPEG ready for sharing as an Instagram Story.

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