How to create a mood board to inspire your next knitwear design, home décor or creative project.
Have you ever created a mood board?
A mood board is a collage of images or photographs that create a visual representation of an idea, concept or feeling. Mood boards are used in graphic design, interior design, and fashion.
They are a great way for anyone to get their creative juices flowing and find inspiration for any creative project. Heck, the mood board itself can be the final result. I use mood boards to help inspire my knitwear design ideas but I also enjoy creating them on their own.
I was first introduced to mood boards through the Initiate Knit Design Challenge created by Francoise Danoy of Aroha Knits. Frenchie offers themed Pinterest mood boards to help her students find design inspiration and create their own knitwear designs..
This year, Frenchie also started a monthly mood board challenge in her Yarn Alchemists Facebook Group which I have been enjoying so much. I have been sharing my mood boards on social media and have had some question about how I create them.
So I thought I would share my mood board creation process.
Step One: Pick Your Topic
The first step is to pick a topic or theme for your mood board. That's one reason I love the Monthly Mood Board Challenge in the Aroha Knits Facebook Group because Frenchie provides the theme/topic, allowing me to skip this step.
The theme could be anything - nature or animals, a particular colour or design style, a song or movie, a holiday or special occasion - whatever concept that you want to inspire your design or project.
Here are some topic suggestions:
By the Light of the Moon (August theme from Aroha Knits)
Rainy Autumn Day (September theme from Aroha Knits)
By the Seaside
Minimalism
Old Country Farm House
Yellow
Purple
Cabin in the Woods
Lazy Sunday
Hygge
Cozy Christmas
Halloween Haunt
Step Two: Brainstorm
The second step is taking time to brainstorm. When you think of your chosen phrase or word, what other words or ideas come to mind. It helps to set a timer of 10 minutes or so, otherwise you could be there all day.
I like to write my ideas down in a notebook and I also include doodles or sketches that also come to mind.
Step Three: Search
The next step is to search online for images or photographs using the words that came up in step two. I like to use Pinterest for this step because it is a great search engine but also allows you to save all of the images in one place on a Pinterest Board. Again, limiting the amount of time you spend on this step helps you from going down a deep, dark Pinterest rabbit hole. For this step, I would suggestion 10 or 20 minutes or searching and pinning.
Step Four: Create your collage
The final step is to pick your top 4 or 5 images from your topic Pinterest board. Out of all the images you pinned, these are the images that stand out to you, that you are most drawn to, or just your favourites.
Next, I upload copies of these images into a graphic design tool like Canva, and I place them into a photo collage template. Canva has lots of mood board templates or you can just make a simple collage, which is what I choose I do for my mood boards.
Here are some of my recent mood board creations.
If you want some more mood board inspiration, you can search Mood Boards on Pinterest or check out Instagram hashtags such #moodboard or #moodboardmonday.
Got a great mood board topic or theme? Let me know in the comments below!
Nicole