Communicate your ideas better with Mood boards.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Every day as a designer, I am reminded of the importance of mood boards. They are far more effective than just writing pages of creative briefs to your team. Mood boards allow us to express ourselves and create original, one-of-a-kind creations.

“Nothing is Original, Everything is a Remix.” — Kirby Ferguson

When you’re beginning from scratch, mood boards can help you chart a course for your design research. The more tightly designed your mood board is, the better designs will be inspired. But, how do we make a mood board that would assist us design better? Let’s have a look.

What is a mood board?

A Mood board, is a tool that may be used to assist you fine-tune your visual ideas at the beginning of a creative project. It’s a collection of photos, material samples, color palettes, and sometimes detailed phrases and typography that can help you get started on your project.

A mood board can be a physical foam board with ideas and visual cues pinned onto it or a digital Pinterest collection of ideas that will inspire you to design better and stay the course.

Do we really need a mood board?

Basically, anyone creating an object or place that requires a specific “look” generally begins by speculating design ideas and color schemes on a mood board.

Graphic designers, interior decorators, set designers, fashion designers, photographers, and film makers are among the creative professionals who use Mood boards.

Step-by-Step Guide: Make Your Own Mood board

1. Design Brief It is critical to have a well-written design brief before starting any creative work. The regulations for your exploration will be laid out in this brief. What to try and what not to try, as well as consumer preferences and requests, are all factors to consider. The mood board design would be a never-ending loop if it didn’t have a design brief.
2. Theme selection After you’ve read the design brief and understood the constraints. The following stage is to begin setting out theme concepts that comply to the standards. Research designs that follow the same principles as your brief and start taking notes. Choose three themes for your design; this will provide the consumer with a variety of options and prevent them from asking for more.
3. Element Collection After you’ve planned and prepared your three themes, the next step is to identify elements that go with them. Choose your colours, fonts, textures, patterns, and other elements while keeping in mind the theme’s constraints.
4. Mood board presentation The last step is a make-or-break moment. You could have the most brilliant ideas and a beautifully curated mood board, but if it isn’t presented in a way that the user understands, it will fail. An explainer video or a live video chat outlining the topic is the best approach to offer a mood board to the user. Never send a mood board to someone and expect them to grasp it right away.

As a designer, you must remember that the first stage in the design process is to create a mood board. This will motivate you to perform to the best of your skills. Pinterest is where I get my ideas, and Figma is where I put them together in a presentable format.

Here’s how to construct your own mood board right now: https://www.canva.com/create/mood-boards/

Ashley Alexsius Dsouza
Experience Designer
Pinterest : https://in.pinterest.com/ashalexsius/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ashalexsius/