In the Mood

Posted by Kelly Pomar on Apr 09 - 2015

Do you dismiss mood boards as a random collage of pictures on a large board – as a messy waste of time? If you do, you’re not alone, but you and your team may be missing out on an elegant and creative way of communicating with your design agency.

Mood boards can be a powerful technique in helping you bring to life all of your ideas, big and small. They are amazingly effective when you brief your catalogue agency, allowing them to see the ideas that you’re trying to communicate to them.

Different mood boards can be used to show a mood (of course), but also to show colour schemes, show the type of shoot location, show how to shoot specific products,

Here are 10 top tips for creating a mood board for your catalogue brief:

Brainstorming 2

1. Think of the key points in your brief and start to brainstorm.

2. Find a key image as a starting point, and use this as your ‘anchor image’.

Anchor
Mood Board

3. Build upon your key image with smaller images to support and flesh out the theme.

4. Go beyond magazine and Google images – remember there are many other print and online image resources to help expand your search.

Beyond Google 2
Mood Board 2

5. Rip up images, collect fabric swatches; use anything you find that fits into your theme.

6. Take photos yourself. Use your smartphone to capture moments of inspiration wherever you are.

Take Photos 2
Typography

7. Add text to explain or enhance the visual nature of your mood board.

8. Take a step back from your mood board – is anything confusing? Do your ideas flow?

Step Back 2
Edit

9. Edit if necessary to help organise your ideas – don't put everything and anything into it; otherwise the ideas will be confusing.

10. Test your mood board or boards – ask other people for their opinion.

Opinion 2

That's it! Your mood board is ready to be presented to your agency. You can see that creating a successful mood board needs time for the best results, like any creative process.

Remember your mood board is just there to create a vibe so your agency can use it as a source of insight when they are designing your catalogue.

If nothing else, working on a mood board will help you to appreciate the amount of creative thought and work that goes into the mood boards your agency shows you!

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