Mood Boards

Mood boards are a great way to brain storm and collect ideas and/or inspiration before actually committing to a project.  They allow you to collaborate designs and project theories as well as assess the practicalities of what you have in mind and whether or not it could work in practice.  Creating collections by gathering fabrics, colour swatches and any other tangible pieces is a key starting point for most artist and can be translated to help with any project whether its a new piece of artwork or an over haul of one of your rooms at home.

For me collecting ‘content’ physical or virtual is an ongoing process and something I contribute to on a daily basis.  This way I have a good pool of fabric scraps, new patterns and on trend colour variations to source from whenever a project starts and the need for a new mood board arises.

A great free online tool for doing this is Pinterest. But with so many new trends and ideas out there it’s very easy to get pin happy. Here are some tips to getting the perfect mood board for your next project.

SOURCING POOL:  Try to maintain a staple of at least 4 different boards that you can continuously add to.  Name them and keep them on topic.  Some good board name topics ideas are:

  • Styles & Era
  • Colours & prints
  • Textures & fabrics Sketches
  • Shapes & Designs
  • Artwork & Artists

Once you have your regular boards set up, continue to add to them on a daily basis.  This way once you start a new topic plan you will have a plethora of freshly sourced ideas to mind map from.

FOLLOW LIKE MINDED PINNERS: Research other Pinners to both follow and collaborate with.  Remember two heads are always better than one.

PIN ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME: Download the Pinterest App and add the Pin icon to your PC or Laptop search bar, this way you can save anything you see on any site at any time, whether it be a shirt on ebay, a google search image or a post thats randomly popped up on your Facebook home page.

START SMALL:  The best advice I ever received was “expect the worst but, hope for the best!”.  A lot of people on Pinterest become disheartened and disappointed when they bite off more than they can chew and their attempts end up looking nothing like the glossy pins they’ve been following.  Although there are some very lucky and talented people out there that can copy and create perfectly first time most people must learn to walk before they can run; take on a basic, beginners project. And learn from your mistakes, crap happens, live and learn but, never ever give up!

Ultimately the key is to have fun and as great as all these online tools and motivational quotes are nothing beats physical contact and content.  Get out, go window shopping, take photos on your phone and better still take a note book and pen with you everywhere you go to jot down ideas, make doodles and sketches of absolutely anything that you touch, see or hear that sparks your creative flow.  Nothing beats allowing ideas to grow organically in to your own art baby!

In the mean time if you are in need of a little inspiration come join us, let’s get pinning!:

www.pinterest.co.uk/booberrit

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.