Making a Mood Board
Let's set the vibes
Where to begin–what are the vibes?
Ok, but really, you gotta figure out the vibes! The vibes are crucial in guiding your mood board journey. Start asking yourself questions: What are you obsessed with right now? Is there a song you’ve been playing on repeat? Why that song? What does it mean to you? Did you see something that inspired you that you can stop thinking about? Maybe a beautiful painting at a museum? What colors were you drawn to? What about that meal you thought was so great that you took a picture of it? Was it the composition of the food? What did the plate look like? What’s something in nature that you’ve been drawn to lately? The sunny beach? A peaceful walk with your dog? Get to noodling!
Feeling stuck? Make a playlist.
Making a playlist is like a mood board for your ears! I like to start here because then I can listen to my new awesome playlist while doing the hours-long work of scouring the internet for the perfect images. Listen to my STUDIO TUNES on Spotify:
Ok, the vibes have been properly set!
Time to turn up the tunes and open Pinterest. Search all those things that have been swimming around in your head and start pinning. Search images from the art exhibition you just attended, that musician you’ve been listening to on repeat, that trip you just took, that meal you just instagrammed. After a while, I bet you start seeing a visual thread of how all these things that inspire you are connected.
As for my mood boards, I will without a doubt pull images of the beach or anything beach related (what can I say, I’m a scorpio drawn to the water!). Like Ken in the new Barbie movie, I wish my job was ‘just beach’.
Lately, my specific “just beach” obsession is nautilus shells. As you can see, this shape really has me “spiraling” (get it?) on my most recent Pinterest mood board.
One more thing
Ok, so you have your Pinterest board, which is great, but in my opinion, nothing beats pinning printed images to an actual board and seeing your inspiration in real life. That way you can combine your Pinterest images with images from magazines, fabric swatches, trim, stickies with your handwritten notes, etc. Being able to see all my favorite things in my workspace helps me feel more grounded in my creative work. I made a Tik Tok of myself working on my own board for your viewing pleasure!
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What’s on your mood board? Let me know!
i love this! You've helped me focus on what does actually inspire me... and a lot of times it comes from nature or even a novel I might be reading. The book isn't a visual inspiration perse, but it sparks my brain in a different way and I just start jotting down notes all over the place!