mood+boards+and+research



At the start of a Design Project it is important to clarify in your own mind the direction you would like the project to take. This is important for the observer too. So the first important step in you design process is to create a Mood board.

Mood boards are used by design companies to communicate concepts, styles, colours, target customers and influences to the rest of the design team as well as the client setting the brief. Some companies – especially in the Fashion industry – specialize in creating Mood boards to communicate the trends for the next season; companies will pay thousands of pounds for this type of information. So do not dismiss the Mood board as just a few pictures stuck on a piece of card. Mood boards are a vital part of the design process and will be extremely helpful to you for inspiration.



//Where do you start?// When you are set a brief – you may be given a theme, a target customer or some other source of reference. There is your starting point! Look on the internet and see if you can find any **interesting** pictorial information in relation to this subject. Do not just print out every picture you can find on this subject – be selective! (There is a lot of rubbish on the internet!) Does the picture mean something to you? Does it give you ideas about ways to move forward with the project? If the answer is ‘no’ to either of these questions then move on! If at the end of this process you can only find three or four pictures of real worth to you then that’s fine. There are lots of other sources of information that you can look at. If on the other hand, you have found a fantastic source of inspiration on the internet – you might consider saving the images and putting together a Mood board on the computer using a drawing package like Photoshop



Sources of Reference 1