A mood board is a physical or digital collage of images, words, and other elements that organize your design or project ideas. It is commonly used in such fields as interior design, business pitching, fashion, graphic design, and weddings.
As part of initial brainstorming process, a mood board offers your project a clear visual direction towards which the whole team can work. To make a mood board can help you clearly convey desired styles or concepts and transform your initial thoughts to a first draft or action smoothly.
If you want to learn about how to make a mood board along with some useful tips, continue reading and find everything about this useful strategy.
Part 1: 5 Reasons to Make a Mood Board
A mood board is essential in design and business because it acts as a tangible representation of what your ideas will look or feel. In detail, there are 5 reasons to create a mood board:
1. A mood board acts as visual inspiration. The process of making a mood board motivates yourself and teammates to come up with original and creative ideas.
2. A mood board organizes your thoughts and convey them clearly. When you create a mood board, you arrange all elements in an organized way so that your teammates or clients can understand and expression their feelings about the design.
3. It establishes basic concepts and styles to focus on. A mood board clarifies the vision throughout the whole project, which can make sure that your team create things that align with the core concepts and the final goal. It will save you lots of time and energy.
4. Creating a mood board can smooth the collaboration process. As majority of population are visual learners, your pictures will speak for you and speed up the initial stage of a project.
5. It assures of cohesive branding. To make a mood board will offer a visual reference that aligns with a your brand’s identity, ensuring that everything conveys the brand’s style and values.
Therefore, for designers or creators, creating a mood board is usually the initial step of a new project. If you are new to this tool, check out how to make a mood board in the next part.
Part 2: How to Make a Mood Board Easily with Noteey
There are usually two types of mood boards: physical and digital ones. In this part, we mainly discuss how to create a mood board with a digital platform, but the principles and methods can also apply to making physical ones.
To begin with, you need to first choose a great digital mood board maker. A wide range of options are available, such as Noteey, Canva, Figma, etc. Here we take Noteey as an example, as it packs a strong toolkit. Download Noteey and follow the 7 steps below to create a mood board easily:
Step 1: Brainstorm and write down all ideas
How to make a mood board to begin with? You can start by brainstorming and writing down all possible concepts based on your project goal and client’s expectations. Jot down every relevant idea and gather them all together.
Step 2: Choose the best idea and start a project
From all possible concepts and ideas, choose the one that fits your project the most as the core theme. Now you can begin to visualize it on a mood board.
To create a mood board, open Noteey and start a new project. Use the “Text” or “Shape” tool in the toolbar above to put your core concepts and keywords on the blank board.
Step 3: Collect all the inspirations and materials
Search for inspirations or creative sources in reality or on the Internet. Try to find items, such as pictures, typography, color palettes, and every other thing that match your project or brand qualities. With Noteey, you can capture all the materials that you need for the mood board.
Step 4: Add more visual elements
Now you have a collage of elements to make your mood board. Add more visual elements that seem to convey your ideas, including but not limited to images, colors, fonts, videos, and audio files.
In Noteey, click on “Image” or “File” on the top to import image, audio, and video files. You can even draw your thoughts out by clicking on the pen-like icon that says “Draw.”
Some designers like to place a color palette on the mood board to show the color vibe they want for the design or project. You can do that easily with Noteey. It helps you capture color palettes directly from images or create custom palettes.
Step 5: Organize your mood board
A very important step to create your mood board is to arrange all elements in an organized way. Put your designs in modules, and include style choices or actual elements.
If you are designing a handcrafted product, you need to put everything in order, including the color palette, texture presentation, concepts, etc.
If you make a mood board about a website, then you should arrange your font choices, typography, buttons, icons, and headings in a way that your clients understand.
Step 6: Be open to inspiration and update the board
After you create the mood board, it is not completely done. Every time you see something that might be useful to your design and project, you can collect and put it on your mood board. As long as you are still on the project, always be open to new inspirations and update the board whenever needed.
Step 7: Collaborate with your team to polish ideas
It is important to get feedback and continually polish the concepts and thoughts. Therefore, after you make the mood board, you need to share it and collaborate with your team.
In Noteey, find the “Share” button above and click it to export a local version and send it to your team members. Another option is to generate a link to the board and allow everyone with the link to access it. They can also work on it with their unique thoughts.
During the project, polish the mood board based on feedback until there is nothing more to add.
Part 3: How to Make Mood Board for Different Scenarios
A mood board is essential in lots of business fields. You might want to know how to make a mood board because you are a designing a product or pitching an idea to your boss. What are other fields or scenarios where a mood board is in need? Here we list four areas as examples. They may inspire you to make your own mood board.
1. Fashion
Fashion is a field where mood boards are commonly used. Creating a mood board allows designers to explain the inspiration, concept and feeling of their work. It captures the aesthetic vibe and atmosphere that you want for your garment.
2. Branding and marketing
If you are in marketing, you usually need to pitch ideas to your boss or clients. This is where mood boards become handy. Words are easily lost in communication, but pictures let people see and feel your thoughts. After you create a mood board, you can convey what you have in mind to others visually. Your clients and leaders will immediately understand the concepts and save your time on communication.
3. Interior design
Interior designers also use a mood board to show the color palettes, textures, layouts, and style of an interior design. To make a mood board allows designers and clients to be on the same page before the design officially begins. A mood board for interior design not only saves designers’ time but also reserves clients’ money.
However, mood boards are not only limited to these fields. You can always try to make a mood board whenever you feel like visualizing your thoughts, no matter you are revising a product or solely recording your emotions. It is a great way to make your ideas tangible and organized.
Part 4: Practical Tips to Make a Mood Board
There are several useful tips to make sure that your mood board continually offers your team direction and guides the whole project.
1. Try different styles and concepts until you are sure of one. Trying different things gives you more choices and makes clear what you actually want.
2. Be a story teller and sell your ideas.
3. Use enough tools to articulate the concepts.
4. Get feedback and collaborate with other people, especially your team and clients.
Be sure to keep these tips in mind when you start to make a mood board.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a mood board allows you to convey ideas and concepts in the early stage of a project. Therefore, to create a mood board can visualize your thoughts, bring out more creativity, and keep everyone on the same page. This article explains how to make a mood board with Noteey in 7 easy steps. Make sure to collect all the possible inspirations and use the powerful toolkit of Noteey when you create a digital mood board. It is equally important to get feedback and optimize your initial thoughts on your board. Now you are all set. Start to make a mood board of your own!
FAQs
1. What is the best tool to create a mood board?
There are lots of digital mood board makers for you to choose. Noteey is one of the powerful tools. It has a clear board space for you to be creative and allows you to share the board with others. You can also use Noteey to write journals or collect books.
2. What elements should be included in a mood board?
The most common elements include drawings, typography, color palettes, photos, quotes, textures, icons, etc. But you can use whatever elements you like. Just use your imagination.