The Art of Moodboarding
- Oct 17, 2022
- 5 min read
During my time at University, moodboards became one of my favourite ways of communicating a concept without having to say much verbally and they were great to share easily with a group. Now, moodboards are still an integral part of my planning process when it comes to creating new ideas and planning the more creative portraits I make. Today, I’m going to show you how I make my moodboards, some tips on making your own and why they’re not just for creatives, but for everyone!
Before we begin, you might be wondering what a moodboard is. A moodboard is a collection of images that are there to convey a specific theme, visual or feeling; occasionally with a few key words added to make it really easy to get a general understanding of a subject quickly. They become extremely useful when you need to share ideas with others and may need a visual to ensure everyone is on the same page (e.g. a new fashion concept), but they are also great for personal use. For example, the ever-popular vision board is essentially a moodboard that summarises your visions for the month or year with images and key words to help you focus on your life goals.
While you will predominantly see moodboards being used within the creative industry, they really are for everyone! As well as physical vision boards, Pinterest is a great space to ‘pin’ images in our very own moodboards that might match a certain aesthetic you’re currently aiming for, the vibe for your next home renovation, or the next hairstyle you might ask for at your hairdressers. They are so versatile and the best part is that they aren’t permanently fixed, you can change it up whenever you like. Moodboarding is a great way to gain a clearer perspective on any aspect in your life, and they’re quite therapeutic to make!
I use my moodboards to allow myself to gain more clarity on an idea in my head. I can then share this moodboard easily with clients and any team members such as MUAs, so everyone knows the general concept of the shoot and the feeling we’re going for. Moodboards are also really handy to have on my phone or iPad while out on a photoshoot, as I can quickly refer back to them for inspiration regarding posing and composition, as well as ensuring the shoot stays on track. Here’s a little look at how I make them!
Since it’s October, I thought I’d share with you how I made a moodboard for a Halloween-themed shoot that I’ve just wrapped on. This was for a Lizzie-Borden inspired photoshoot with an incredibly talented young dancer. After doing some research into the story, I then headed to pinterest as I find it’s a great way to find inspiration quickly.
There were three important visuals needed in this moodboard; location, outfit and posing inspiration. I am taking inspiration from the Dance Moms ‘Lizzie Borden’ solo costume for the outfit and the Les Mis poster of the young girl is my reference point for the type of hair I would like for the shoot. After I have collected images regarding the atmosphere of the location, the styling and some posing prompts, I simply save these into my Halloween Pinterest Board and download the images onto my iPad.
I currently use Photoshop to make my moodboards as I prefer to include more than just images in my boards, however you can use any photo-collaging software such as PicCollage, Canva, or even keep it super simple and leave it as the Pinterest Board. It’s important that whatever you do works for you! Once in Photoshop, I arrange the images on a new document until the page is more or less full (but not cluttered). You could easily just stop here if you wanted to, and save the collage to your phone!
However, when it comes to creating moodboards for my job, I like to incorporate standout words that will help me stay on track. For this shoot, these words were ‘drama’ and ‘theatrics’ as the shoot will involve my model acting a role. I also like to include a very basic colour palette, which I do via the eyedropper tool in Photoshop. Once I have found the desired colour within the images, I use the brush tool to paint around some of the images. This is just a little extra I like to add not only because it’s aesthetically pleasing, but it’s also extremely helpful to refer back to during the post-production process.
Now all there is left to do is save the image to my phone! It really is such a simple process that anyone can do it. However, I do think there are certain things that make a good and bad moodboard, so here are my top three tips if you’d like to try it out!
1. Don’t clutter your board
This may sound a little contradictory as I just mentioned to fill your blank document. However, that doesn’t mean throwing every image onto the page. This is because it will become too difficult to see everything, thus you’ll be unable to focus on what the goal of the moodboard really was in the first place. Regardless of whether the board is for creative or personal use, it’s better to have less images that are important, and play around with the sizes of them on the page, than having heaps of content that offers no real substance or purpose.
I have given you two examples of moodboards I have created below. One was created way back in my second year of University, and the other was created just last week. As you can see, there are way less images on the page but they provide much more clarity on the photoshoot concept than the first one!
2. Be specific with what you search for
This is tailored more towards the creatives, but is helpful for those personal boards too! No matter which platform you find your images on, whether it’s google, pinterest or magazines, be specific in your research. For example, if you were to search ‘Red Aesthetic’ on Pinterest, you will be presented with a ton of images that are just red and it’s very easy to get lost in the sea of red images. Instead, try adding keywords like ‘Red Aesthetic Grunge’ and you’ll find images tailored to that aesthetic much easier than you would under the general red search. This is also a great way to think more deeply about what the aim is.
3. Have fun with it!
It’s very easy for the process to become more tedious than enjoyable if you stress too much about the end product. In fact, I don’t think there is an end product when it comes to making moodboards for personal use. I have moodboards from four years ago that I still remove and add images to, and some boards I have deleted altogether because they don’t interest me anymore! The best part about moodboards for personal use is that they don’t need to be perfect, they just need to resonate with you. For creatives, it’s a little different since there often needs to be an end product, however don’t let that take away from the joy of brainstorming new ideas!
If you made it to the end, congrats! Let me know if moodboards will be something you might try. If you want to see a full tutorial on how I make my moodboards, you can view the Reel I created on Instagram!
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