Mood Board for Visual Inspiration
When you need inspiration a reference of your ideas and concepts that communicate the essence, style and mood you envision is invaluable. This can be a physical or digital mood board. It is worth mentioning that this is not just a collage of images and elements.
The purpose of creating a mood board is to have a visual guide for your project. It will clearly represent and define the concept and visual style of your project. Before you start the creative process you need to have a good idea of what you want to end up with. For example, you may be working on a project for a vacation or wedding. It is wise to pick out your color palette at the onset. Having clarity will help you choose the correct elements for your board.
Just like cooking you need to have all the right ingredients to make the dish that you want. Graphic designers, illustrators, marketers and creators alike can benefit from a mood board. Each project will require different elements. Some of the most commonly used elements include images, icons, logos, videos, text and audio. What you choose will depend on your theme and topic.
(Image Credit: Pexels.com)
How Do I Make a Mood Board
As with all creative projects you will start with a theme, this may require some thought and brainstorming. Write down your ideas. Think about what it is that you would like to communicate. Consider how the concept makes you feel. Decide what type of mood board you are going to make; physical or digital. If it is a physical one then you need to decide where you will make your board. You can make it on a wall or a cork board or on a piece of cardboard it’s up to you.
If you will make a digital mood board then you will need to use a photo editing program, (GIMP is a free open source image manipulation program) or a vector graphic editor (Inkscape is a free open source vector graphic editor) or an online program.
Get inspired by visiting websites such as Pintrest where you can view some mood boards. Next you will begin searching for the types of elements that you would like to use. Pexels and Pixabay are both good resources. Just make sure that the elements you choose match your theme and concept. Most mood boards use several different types of elements.
How to Make a Digital Mood Board on Pintrest
If you choose to make a digital mood board there are several online sites that have programs with free versions such as Invision. However, you can use Pintrest to create your mood boards too. It is very simple and extremely effective.
First you need to log into your Pintrest account and click on your profile picture, then click on the plus (+) sign on the right and select “board”. Give your new board a name for the theme and topic. Use the search bar and begin gathering images for your mood board. When you find an image, click on the drop down arrow on the image and select the name of the board that you just made and make sure that you save the image to the correct board. After adding all of your images you can and should arrange them the way you want by dragging and dropping them where you like.
(Image Credit: Pexels.com)
Do Mood Boards Work
Yes. Your mood board will inspire and guide you as your creative juices flow. Do not forget to pick out your color palette and try different elements. Still need more inspiration? Go to Google and do a search for Mood board examples and spend some time viewing boards. There are some wonderful mood boards covering many topics with different layouts and color palettes to inspire you.