What is a moodboard & how to create a moodboard | Interior Style Hunter (2024)

Creating a moodboard is a fun and creative way to define your style and bring your design ideas to life. Whether designing a room in your home, planning a renovation, or working on a creative project, a moodboard will help you crystallise and communicate your vision.

In this blog post, we’ll review the basics of a moodboard, why you should use one, and how to create one.

What is a moodboard in design?

A moodboard is a visual tool that helps you communicate your design concepts and ideas. It’s a curated collection of images, materials, colour palettes, text, and other elements arranged to evoke a particular style or feeling.

Don’t think it has to be arranged neatly in a tray or beautifully pinned to a board; it’s a creative process, so whatever works for you is just right. But sometimes, a little structure is useful, so let’s run through that.

Moodboards can be used as part of the design process for various projects, from interior design to fashion, product design, and more.

Why use a moodboard?

You should create a moodboard when working on a design project for a few key reasons.

Helps you define your style:

Creating a mood board is a great way to explore your style and learn more about what you like and don’t like. By curating a collection of images and elements that reflect your taste, you’ll be able to see common threads and define your aesthetic.

Communicate your ideas:

A moodboard is an effective visual communication tool that can help you express your design vision to others. Whether you’re working with a designer, a client, or a team, a moodboard can help you convey your ideas and get everyone on the same page.

Helps you stay focused:

When working on a design project, it’s easy to get too focused on the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. A moodboard can help you stay focused by keeping your ideas and inspiration organized and in one place.

Allows you to play around with different options:

Moodboards allow you to experiment with different design options and see how they work together before committing to a final design.

How to make a mood board

Creating a mood board template is easy and can be fun. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a moodboard for your next project:

Step 1: Gather inspiration

The first step when creating moodboards is to gather inspiration. This includes images, text, materials, and anything else that inspires you and reflects your style. You can gather inspiration from various sources, such as magazines, Pinterest, Instagram, and more.

Step 2: Choose a platform

Once you’ve gathered your inspiration, you must choose a platform to create your moodboard. There are a few different options, including physical mood boards (my favourite), digital mood boards (there are some perks to digital – read on), and mood board apps. Some popular apps include Canva, Adobe Spark, and Moodboard Creator.

Step 3: Start curating your moodboard

Next, start curating your moodboard by organizing your inspiration into different categories or themes. For example, you might want to create separate sections for colour, pattern, textures, etc.

Step 4: Experiment with different layouts

Once you’ve organized your inspiration, start experimenting with different layouts and compositions. Move elements around, play with different colour schemes, and try varying combinations to see what works best.

Step 5: Add text and keywords

To make your moodboard more effective as a communication tool, consider adding text and keywords to help describe the abstract message you’re trying to convey. This will help others understand your design vision and make it easier to communicate your ideas.

Why Do We Use A Moodboard?

One of the main reasons to use a moodboard is to define your style. It can be difficult to express your visual ideas to others, and a moodboard is a great tool to help you communicate your vision for a project.

A moodboard also helps to collate and focus your ideas and serves as a starting point for your design project.

Physical vs Digital Moodboard?

Both have pros and cons and sometimes it’s necessary to create both. Let me tell you why.

Nothing can beat a physical moodboard for sensing the 3D nature and depth of fabric weave or paint, or metallic sheen from a physical sample. You can gauge how the light bounces off the samples when placed next to each other and how the light bounces the colour refraction between the samples and affects each other. E.g., a pink fabric next to a nickel sample would have a pink tone. This would be difficult to communicate on a digital moodboard. You can also include scent in a physical moodboard.

A digital mood board can include video and sound, which are missing from a physical mood board. Motion and sound are powerful elements when creating an atmosphere and can instantly set the mood.

So I’d suggest for professional projects, it’s worth preparing both a physical and digital moodboard that complement each other and can powerfully communicate your vision.

Example Moodboard:

Let’s say you want to create a moodboard for a living room. You start by thinking about your style and what you like and dislike. You realise that you love the coastal style and want to incorporate that into your living room.

You then collect images of coastal-style living rooms, landscapes, and beachy decor. You arrange the images on a board and play around with the layout. You add keywords like “coastal,” “beach,” and “relaxed” to describe the abstract message you’re trying to convey.

Finally, you compare the physical and digital moodboard.

The physical moodboard will show how the elements relate and work together in 3D, while the digital moodboard can include movement and sound to create an immersive experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a moodboard is a great tool to help you define your style and communicate your design concepts and ideas. It is important to remember that creating a moodboard is a creative process, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Enjoy the creative process, and share your mood boards with us so we can see what you’ve created.