15 Applications for Making Mood Boards
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Get Inspired: We have 15 Mood Board Creation Tools for Interior Design.
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The purpose of a mood board is to act as a visual tool for talking to clients about concepts, branding your business, or reviewing color and the primary impression of your lifestyle to create ideas for your home. Picking out and curating images can help you find and learn more about your style preferences
What is a mood board in interior design?
A mood board is a visual tool that communicates our concepts and visual ideas. It is a well-thought-out and planned arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. that is intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept. Mood boards are a powerful tool in design. They are a collage of images–consisting of art, architecture, nature, furniture, and more–they can frame the creative, nonverbal ideas of a project in visual terms.
How to make a mood board?
Assembling all these photo libraries for making your mood board can take time. Think of the time-consuming work of Google image search after Google image search, then trying to figure out how to remember or create a list of each source photo link from the tiny thumbnail preview to save it for later. We have compiled a list of mood board applications and software to help you save time and store all the pertinent information attached to the element you place in your beautiful digital mood board.
What about Pinterest?
I do love PINTEREST for my sourcing, but I prefer not to send my clients directly there and possibly have them searching for hours and ending up frustrated on a rabbit hole experience we often feel when we don’t know how to filter the good, the bad, and the ugly! My preference is to lead the conversation with visual mood boards that I have created specifically for them.
Make Beautiful Mood Boards
Mood Boards are proven to keep your audience engaged when presenting. Try creating mood boards that set the mood of a room, or represent your furniture selections or even a list that is emailed and is with links for them to select on their own!
Tell visually compelling stories using any of these applications and templates.
The Purpose of a Mood Board
is to act as a visual tool for talking to clients about concepts, branding your business, or reviewing color and the primary impression of your lifestyle to create ideas for your home. Picking out and curating images can help you find and learn more about your style preferences.
A Mood Board tells the story: color, texture, pattern, and mood
A mood board is very useful in the beginning stages of a project. It is a visual tool that helps to define your style and preferences and is especially helpful when designing your home. You create a collection that delights you, and you can start to see them for your preferences.
Types of Mood Boards
There are different types of mood boards. They are concept tools used in Interior Design, Fashion, and Business Branding just to name a few.
(FASHION)
Gucci by Alessandro Michele: Show Moodboards
(INTERIOR DESIGN )
Materials
For Interiors, a physical mood board will contain product images and materials. I love adding elements I picked up on a hike or a visit to the beach into mood boards to help us connect to nature and its color palate.
Visual Imagery
Other types of mood boards/concept boards are electronic. These are image collections creating a mood, like this one by June Letters.
seen here: June Letters: Vector Templates
These are both effective and the choice to use one or the other is dependent on the overall budget, as well as the tools and resources available to you.
The tools are mainstreamed and some companies even have a great library of sources to start with. You just add additional items that you find from your other resources, into your library for future use.
Make Beautiful Mood Boards
Download Our 18-page E-Book “15 Applications for Making Mood Boards” and impress your clients.
Digital Mood Boards
Digital mood boards can be created to help direct clients visually into style ideas and help them through to their final selections to communicate the overall feel and style of a room.
It is the time required in creation that will dictate my choice of an electronic mood board for conceptual conversations versus a 3-D physical material board. It all depends on the project scope and fee, and where we are in the design process. Using the electronic method is time-efficient if you have a couple of hours to create a material mood board and add it to your presentation or buying list. (see which Project Management tool does this for you automatically when creating mood boards as part of their software options, all in one place!)
Anyone who has attended design school knows that material boards / 3-D physical mood boards can take a long time to build to beautiful perfection. They are my favorite, but the thought of paying for the 10-15 hours it could take for the creation of a beautiful board, may not be how a client would choose to spend a portion of the design fee. (see which online classes I recommend for becoming a better mood board creator, and forming the right language to discuss with your clients)
These tools are great for smaller, conceptual, or budget projects and some are great for larger, more complex projects of multiple rooms. Mood boards are a simple yet effective tool for clear communication of ideas and a streamlined process. (Digital mood boards are very effective for remote services.) - Deborah von Donop
Master Your Interior Design Process
Here I review 3 mood board tools to get you started on the options offered.
Here are some tools to make a Mood Board for Interior Design Presentations. Some are FREE and some will work on your PHONE! Regardless of which software or app you choose, your business will be much more professional, and your tools streamlined for great results. MOOD BOARDS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR PLANNING A PROJECT - Deborah
APPLICATIONS and RESOURCES
ADOBE SPARK : FREE
“Mood Boards creation is free!”
Bonus application: You can also take it one step further and create branded social videos with Spark premium. Only $9.99/month. Iconic Imagery. Mobile and web. Premium Tools & Effects. Beautiful Typography. Share everywhere. Free Professional Themes. Auto Add Cinematic Motion.
2. ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR: This is a simpler version than the professional Photoshop
Many times I will start on Pinterest, and pin images to a secret board. From there I use images to create my mood board.
Adobe Illustrator Single App
Get Illustrator as part of Creative Cloud for just US$20.99/mo.
*****This is what a SHOPPING LIST looks like using one of these great apps!
3. PINTEREST
It should be easy for a client to say what is going where all together and this list would not be complete without a mention of Pinterest. We collaborate with clients through the project on a group board of ideas. Here is one of my most popular boards: dvd Interior Design: Kitchens
But don’t stop there, we have some great apps, that you will use year over year for professional mood boards, that cut out the white space and allow you to create inspirations and furniture collections that tell the design story.
Collect and play with images. It is best to create these boards over a few days. Add and remove images and materials as more are contributed. This is something that is learned through doing. Enjoy the process and learn to move things around and edit with the clients' input and responses. Use your keywords (only 2-3 is best) and allow the board to communicate these words with better depth and understanding.
Get the in-depth Guide on the best 15 applications for interior designers, creatives, and stylists to choose from depending on your time and presentation style.
“How to Create a Digital Mood Board, 15 Great Resources You Need To Know”
THE DESIGN BOARD IS ESSENTIAL FOR PLANNING A ROOM.
Having a mood board helps you work with clients and yourself to narrow your focus, provide inspiration, and create a vision that relates well to your brand, and lifestyle for THE home.
In this guide, you will see MY TOP DESIGN SECRETS TO STARTING ANY PROJECT:
15 Mood Board APPLICATIONS AND Programs for creating beautiful presentations.
How A Mood Board Can Win You the Project
MOOD BOARD CREATION ON YOUR PHONE
HOW TO REMEMBER WHERE YOU SOURCED THE MANY IMAGES YOU ARE PRESENTING
FREE AND PAID PROGRAMS
LINKS TO EACH PROGRAM
HOW TO REMOVE BACKGROUNDS FROM FURNITURE IMAGES!
HOW TO SHOW UP PREPARED AND PROFESSIONAL
*Bonus: These are also great tools and applications for CREATING IMAGES TO share on social media!
The purpose of a mood board is to help explore ideas and figure out the general style, mood, colors, and overall feel of a room or project space. Ask any interior designer, and they will say the mood board is their go-to tool for the initial planning phase of a space.
Let me know in the comments below if you use mood boards in your presentations. Did I miss any updates or new applications that I should be using in addition to those listed in the guide?
Yours in design,
Deborah
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MEET THE AUTHOR: Deborah von Donop
Deborah is the mom, wife, and design lover behind dvd Interior Design. She is obsessed with creating a timeless and authentic home. She has been an Interior Designer since 2003, guiding clients with functional layouts, the best products and finishes, and sharing her expertise in kitchen design and cabinetry. Deborah writes weekly and is also a contributor to Aspire Magazine, iBlog, Lush Design, a speaker on social media and digital products, and more!
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15 Applications for Making Mood Boards
