Mood Boards

The earliest known use of mood boards was by interior designers in the early 20th century. They used mood boards to help clients visualize their design ideas and communicate a room or space’s overall look, color, and feel. During the mid-20th century, mood boards became more widely used in the fashion industry. Fashion designers created collections of illustrations and fabric samples to communicate their ideas to clients and collaborators. In the 1980s, mood boards became more prevalent in graphic design. Designers use mood boards to explore and share design ideas, often using images and typography to represent different design elements and concepts. With the rise of digital tools in the 1990s, mood boards became easier to create and share, and designers began using them more frequently. Today, mood boards are essential in many design fields, including interior design, fashion, graphic design, and web design. They use digital tools like Pinterest, Canva, and Prezi, making them easy to share with groups for collaboration and feedback. Mood boards are essential tools for designers, helping them to explore and communicate ideas and to ensure that everyone involved in a project is on the same page. What kind of mood board are you thinking of studying?

Wes Anderson is known for his distinctive visual style, often featuring carefully curated color panels, typography, and set design. Anderson creates mood boards for each of his films, using images, color swatches, and other visual elements to help establish the look and feel of the movie. The 2013 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, A mood board created by director Baz Luhrmann, inspired the look of the 20113 adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby. The mood board included images of Art Deco design and other visual elements that helped establish the film’s look and feel. The original design of the Nike Air Jordan 1 mood board designer Peter Moore created set the brand in front of the public. The mood board included images of Michael Jordan and other basketball players and helped establish the shoe’s iconic look. Apple’s iPod: The design of the original iPod responded to a mood board created by designer Jonathan Ive. The mood board included images of classic Braun products and other minimalist designs and helped establish the sleek and simple look of the iPod. Coco Chanel’s mood board with pictures of the Art Deco movement and other design elements influenced the luxurious and elegant look of the fragrance. Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp’s mood board set in motion today’s popular social media platform Pinterest. What mood boards have you seen or can you find?

A simple way to make a mood board is to create a mood board using only words. Word Mood boards can start with Mind Mapping. What is your idea, concept, meme, or theme? What are different words for the same word or closely related words? What descriptive words can define your idea? Is it emotional, intellectual, physical, mystical, memorable, or imaginary? Choose an idea or concept or named theme, such as “friendship,” parents, pets, comfort, adventure, or relaxation, and write words that represent that theme on paper. Designers create mood boards at the beginning of conceptualizing a branding of an idea, feeling, product, space, or an experience. Decide if you want to introduce an idea, a feeling, a product space or experience and create a Word Mood Board. Collect visuals, color tones, and different typography that reflects your thinking.

Upload your word Mood Board.

Step outside and start collecting nature’s nouns. Look at the NEXT.cc’s Nature, Nature’s Patterns, Nature’s Verbs for inspiration. Take a walk around your house or in a park. Start with a weed, a wildflower, grass, leaf, pebble, shell, or rock. Find twigs and branches, acorns, bark pieces or pine cones, and stones. Collect enough natural objects to make a mood board. Arrange the natural materials in a quilt, an organic flow, or spatially. Examine the colors, textures, shapes, geometries, and patterns closely.

Please photograph your nature composition and upload it to the gallery.

Create a mood board using only colors. Choose one primary color- yellow, red, or blue that appeals to you. Collect fabric, flowers, paper, paint, plants, animal photos, bird photos, and water-colored scraps of single colors. Come up with an idea about the color, like active, meditative, light, quiet, energy, etc. Choose a theme, such as “ocean” or “sunset,” winter or summer, day or night, and select the color and color ranges that best represent that theme. Arrange the colors on a poster board or piece of paper and label your mood board. How does it make you feel? Do you like the experience? Imagine filling a room with one color of all different textures, patterns, shapes, and sizes!

Please take a picture of it and upload it to the gallery!

Texture mood boards are best when touched. Fashion designers and interior designers use texture mood boards to share potential fabrics - woven materials, velvet, sateen, wool, boiled wool, suede, leather, flannel, vinyl, wood, metal, ceramic tile, carpet, etc. The chosen textures can be waterproof, windproof, warm, silky, soft, and many more touch-and-feel experiences such as hard and soft, smooth or rough. Fashion Designers sketch and illustrate their creations as part of a texture and color and word mood board. Interior architects also use texture, color, and word mood boards. They organize images, fabrics, materials, colors, and patterns to represent a fashion collection or design scenario for a room or a setting. They can include pictures or fabric samples, many designs, and accessories. Make a fashion mood board or an interiors mood board!

Imagine a new look to a space. Walk into, around, and through an area and sense its views, light quality, and geometry. Understand its available surfaces- the floor, the surrounding walls and openings, and the ceiling. What things would you bring into this room to make it come alive? People fill spaces with furniture, lamps, materials, artwork, etc. People often rearrange rooms and change them or feel. Mood boards are a method for comparing and contrasting different conceptual approaches. Collect images, furniture pictures, objects, fabrics, lights, plants, flooring, carpets, shelving, artwork, and decor that represent a specific design concept/ feel for a room or space. Using the various elements of inspirational places, design your dream room/space, including what the room will encompass, from the furniture, decor, colors, and other factors that represent your style.Photograph it and upload it to the gallery.

Using images cut from magazines, photos, or prints from the internet, and soft and hard material surfaces, create a collage of ideas. Start with a word or words that express a concept. The concept usually is in response to needs and desires. Look at NEXT.cc’s Collage Journey. For the Collage mood board, think of a new theme or vision about our world. Is it saving insects, conserving birds, or protecting biodiversity? Research data about a topic and mix your findings with location maps, local flora and fauna, textures, and objects. Be a changemaker with a mood board!