This past Friday, I created a moodboard of my ideal website aesthetic. While looking for images on Unsplash, I initially searched for mugs, study desks, etc. for a theme of work and productivity. As time went on, however, I noticed that many of the photos I had saved contained pink and green. As a result, I shifted my board’s focus from productivity to nature/greenery and elegance/chic.
Before this assignment, I already had previous experience working with moodboards. For my ninth-grade French class, I created a Pinterest board of furniture and interior design for my ideal house and wrote captions explaining why I picked each image.
I also have my own (private) Pinterest account where I make boards with images of objects, ideas, and experiences that I feel fit my personal aesthetic and desired goals in life.
One of my private boards, for example, contains images of specific locations I want to visit at least once in my life.
While some may believe that moodboards are kitschy, I would argue that they do more help than harm (if they could harm at all, that is):
- Moodboards follow no rules.
There is no single proper way to make a moodboard; you can upload photos to a digital moodboard on Pinterest or GoMoodboard, cut and paste magazine images to poster paper, or even tack pictures to a corkboard!
What matters is that you have fun.
- Making moodboards involves more skills than meets the eye.
Whether you’re browsing the Internet or reading through magazines, it’s imperative that you be savvy and look in the right places to find pictures that best capture your aesthetic.
(Don’t go looking in Sports Illustrated when you should be sticking your nose in Elle.)
It’s also important that you keep your images organized. For digital moodboards, you should keep your images in one folder so that you don’t struggle to find them later. If you’re a cut-and-paste kind of person, keep your pictures in one place and your scraps in another.
- Moodboards activate your imagination.
Moodboards are meant to express moods, which often originate from our thoughts and actions.
After binge-watching HGTV for an hour straight, you’re suddenly an interior designer creating a board of your ideal home.
You’ve just finished flipping through a new issue of Vogue and feel like Anna Wintour—or Miranda Priestly—and now your board consists of luxury brands and high-fashion clothes.
Kill Bill is on, you’re in the mood for revenge, and so your board shows indispensable costumes, long-lasting weapons, formidable opponents, and the most scenic of fight scene settings.
Whatever fantasy may arise, you make your moodboard; be creative, be yourself, and have fun.
(featured image credit: @daniellajardim via unsplash.)
