A mood board is a great way to visually bring ideas and concepts to life. They can help create the desired aesthetic or style for a project or event, such as a wedding or birthday party, or even just your yearly goals. A physical mood board can be created either on your wall or on a base such as paper, cardboard or cork board. This can be a creative and stimulating exercise, but it is also much more accessible to those who may not be familiar with graphic design tools. For this project, you will need scissors, glue or thumbtacks, markers and pens, a ruler and a spare ink cartridge for your printer!
Why not have a go at creating a physical mood board full of your favourite colours, materials, photographs and texts! Whether it’s a personal goal, preparation for an event or a big presentation for work, take some time and follow these top five tips to create the ultimate mood board.
1.Consider the purpose of your mood board and choose your theme
What is the purpose of your mood board? This is the first thing you should consider before creating your mood board, as it will help determine your end-goal and even guide you when deciding on your theme. Are you creating a presentation for work or planning a party? These would be two very different styles of mood boards, so it is crucial to decide on this before starting in order to create a visual presentation or collage best suited to your purpose.
Once you have decided on the purpose of your board, the theme is the next thing you would consider. You should have some ideas based on the type of board you wish to create, but you should think about what colours and materials you would like to use. A work presentation may take on a very professional, business-like theme, full of text, diagrams and graphs. Alternatively, a mood board for a wedding, birthday or bucket list may be full of joyful images and ideas, as well as bright colours. Deciding on your theme will help you when it comes to selecting materials for your board, as you will have an idea of what your end-goal is.
2.Choose and collect images, texts and colours that inspire you
No matter what your mood board is intended for, you will have to carefully select material that inspires you and relates to your theme. Using sources such as magazines, Pinterest and websites, you should be able to build an aesthetic that speaks to you. Print off images, quotes, your own photographs and much more to create the exact style you are aiming for! For this step, it will be very important to have a good photo printer. Epson printers are a popular photo printer choice for colour accuracy and they work great with compatible Epson ink cartridges to produce more detailed, subtle shades and striking prints in specific colours. This means you won’t have to worry about the cost-per-print when creating your mood board, as you can find compatible ink cartridges at great prices!
Don’t be afraid to dabble with some different materials such as fabrics, colour swatches and patterns – these will help you create a mood board for anything from interior designs to outfits! It’s important to remember that this is your mood board, so you should fill it with images, texts and colours that appeal to you and help bring your ideas and concepts to life.
3.Don’t forget to add the most important element!
What will be the most important element on your mood board? Once you have chosen your theme and selected inspirational material, you will have to choose one that you would like to focus on and build your board around. Your key element will set the tone for the entire board, so it is important to choose something that captures the essence of your vision and effectively portrays that. Perhaps you want to focus on a key image, specific colour palette or even an important phrase or message. This will also be helpful for yourself, as the key element may inspire more ideas and concepts to be included on your board. So don’t forget to choose one!
Your key element or focal point will also help other people understand the concept of your mood board, which is extremely important if you are creating this board as part of a presentation!
4.Arrange the content on your board
When arranging the content and materials on your mood board, you should try to create a well-structured and visually compelling board, as well as making your theme and ideas clear and coherent. Thankfully, when you’re placing your material on the board, nothing is permanent so you will be able to play around with the arrangement and adjust it how you like.
Once you have identified your key element, you should then consider things like layout and balance. It is important to choose a layout that is appealing and compliments your theme, perhaps a grid-based or collage-based arrangement will suit best, but these are things you will be able to experiment with. When considering balance on a mood board, you will consider how pleasing balance can look. Try distributing material across your board to try to avoid overcrowding of certain elements like text or images. Pay attention to how colours appear on your board and how they might flow better.
Overall, the arrangement will take some experimenting, but don’t be afraid to do this! A different arrangement may work better than you could have ever imagined.
5.Review and make adjustments where necessary
Take a step back and look at the mood board you have just created. Were you able to capture the purpose and theme you had envisioned? If you feel like your board doesn’t quite portray the concepts and ideas you were trying to get across, then don’t be afraid to start over or change a few elements. Ultimately, this is your mood board, so if you feel that it could be more effective for your purpose, then make the necessary adjustments until you are 100% happy with it!
Overall, creating a mood board can be an artistic and fun experience, so enjoy the brainstorming, research and designing that takes place before you have the finished board. If you decide to go digital, there are a selection of apps and software that will allow you to create a digital mood board, such as Canva, GoMoodBoard and Pinterest!
