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Mood boards have been all over the Internet lately. Some might think that this is a new invention that helps with the design process, but mood boards have existed for a long time now. A nicely composed mood board can be life-saving for an art project or serve as decor. Even if you do not know where to start or there is a creative block, compiling a mood board can make your imagination blossom. In this article, you will learn everything about making mood boards and using them to your advantage.
What is a Mood Board Exactly?
A mood board is a collage of all kinds of pictures, photos, patterns, phrases, and more. You can arrange them in order or all over the place – there are no limits when it comes to being creative. Mood boards allow playing with shapes, sizes, colors, decor elements, inspirations, and more. You can use a moodboard generator to make collages inspired by interiors, your favorite celebrities, and specific patterns as a centerpiece, whichever you like. There are actually two different types of mood boards:
- Physical – mood boards have been around for a long time in a form of pictures on the wall arranged in a certain manner or as collages in diaries and notebooks. In case you want to decorate your wall in a creative way without using posters or art pieces – try cutting out or printing some pictures and making a collage;
- Digital – there are tons of convenient sites and apps for creating mood boards. They can generate ideas for you or you can pick images and different elements by hand to arrange them yourself.
Even if you want to have a physical mood board, you can play around on your computer or a smartphone to have a clear idea and use it for inspiration afterward.
The Main Benefits of Creating Mood Boards
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While there is an obvious purpose for mood boards, which is design, they have many other advantages. Here are the pros of making mood boards:
- Inspiration – whether you have some ideas already or you are completely stuck, it never hurts to make a mood board. It can help you with generating some incredible new ideas and making the inspiration come naturally;
- Communicating with clients – in case you work in a creative field, mood boards are incredibly useful for working with clients. You can ask a client to make a rough mood board to visualize their request, which is insanely helpful for a designer. Or you can compose a few mood boards yourself to pick the best idea;
- Building customer relations – in case your client provides a mood board to support their vision and requests, it is up to you to do it justice. If you take into account everything your customer wants, you can be sure that they will be satisfied and maybe even return in the future;
- Flexibility – mood boards are very simple to work with as you can add things and remove stuff whenever you want. Sometimes, swapping or removing a single image can change the vision completely. Shuffle pictures, patterns, and quotes around to find new inspiring ideas;
- Sticking to a theme – it is so easy to go off track when being inspired. In case you need to create a design based on certain requirements, a mood board can help with setting a general idea and being able to move things around without breaking your theme.
These are only some of the perks of making mood boards. There are so many creative goals that you can achieve even with a simple collage.
How Can I Make a Mood Board?
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First, you need to decide on the media you want to use. Is it a physical or a virtual mood board? After that, gather your materials or digital elements. Look through images and photographs, search for some quotes, look at art, browse through patterns, incorporate different colors, etc. You can position them in a grid, overlap images, add pictures on a chosen background, or combine all these techniques. You can even make mood boards inspired by your favorite movies, books, singers, or anything that comes to mind.
Conclusion
A mood board is a great solution for channeling your inspiration or facilitating the design process. Thanks to modern technology, there are many accessible applications and web tools for creating stunning mood boards. You do not have to be a professional graphic designer or a proficient computer user to be able to make incredible boards. Many websites already have all the necessary pictures and tools for creating intricate collages. Alternatively, you can gather materials from all across the Internet or even scan real life pictures and patterns to digitalize them and incorporate into your work. But most importantly – have fun and follow your imagination.
