The Design Chronicles #2: Mood Board Awakenings

This week, we were introduced to the mood board. Many mood boards. After receiving a client brief and before doing anything — putting pencil to paper, conjuring up color palettes, or even panicking — we were required to create mood boards. This, we learned, should kickoff every design process.

The low down on a mood board: it is a collection of images that evoke the mood or personality of a brand. It is used to get the designer and the client on the same page.  Words can only do so much (one man’s “classic” might be another man’s “boring”), and being able to visualize the design in the same way is key. For a designer, it is also an aid in the development of a design. From the images, a designer takes inspiration for color, typography, layout, etc. For this amateur designer, they were my saviors in getting the creative juices flowing. Photos of a volcano, shattered glass, and an indian scarf inspired my brochure for a coding school. Wool scarves, a camp fire, and a woman in lingerie curled up in a field of hay inspired the color palette for an ice cream ad. Naturally.

This mood boarding process brought some liberating realizations:

That beautiful design is always the child of a banal process. I used to think that a clever logo or gorgeous film poster popped up in the designer’s mind fully formed; that design was the realm only for the “recognized creatives”.  Not the case. Designers are ultimately designing for their clients, and so the finished product has to be born out of the visual guidelines established with them. Designers, then, are necessarily inspired by the mood boarding process (or their equivalent per designer). Not by the elusive creative genius.

That nothing is truly original. Every beautiful design (and I will hazard to say, every work of art) has been inspired by something.  Consciously or subconsciously, a creator is influenced by all that she has experienced — art, nature, films, interiors, food, music, books, travels, history, a bad day. Even the Mona Lisa was inspired by someone.

“There is nothing new under the sun.  Not even Manet.” – Jules Breton

“Originality is way overrated. To make, you need to take. All artists do.” – Darby Barnnard

BUT, That filtering inspiration through the prism of the unique individual produces truly unique work. Every person has a singular story; each of us is the confluence of our days. And as objective and clinical as she may try to be, a designer’s history and influences always stand between the mood board and the final product.  It is remarkable that in class of 47, there are 47 unique creations for the exact same brief — each a little nod to the kaleidoscope of a person behind the design.

Aaaaall this to say, creativity is not reserved for the select few.  It is accessible to anybody with the willingness to put in the work, an eye open to inspiration, and the courage to reveal a little of themselves.