7 Tips for Designing with Moodboards

Jumping into a design can be a daunting task. From the initial project download, there are many steps involved before i actually get my mouse wet. For time’s sake I’m only going to address one of these steps: the moodboard. Imagine a clothing designer’s studio…its walls are probably covered in magazine clippings, fabric swatches, sketches and other bits of inspiration. As a web designer, I use the same process but i do it digitally. I’m definitely not the first to admit that my ideas are maybe 10% original. Lucky for us designers, usability is huge in web design and creating a unique and original design that no one knows how to navigate is useless. I am not saying that I frown upon originality, I’m just saying you must be careful where you execute it, it could make or break your site.

Anyway, back to the moodboard. Whether I’m designing a logo, splash page, site or anything really, I create a moodboard. Anything that pertains to the mood I’m trying to convey gets thrown in(without the use of scissors and elmer’s). With a logo design for example, I would include other logos, colors, photos, words, shapes and anything else that associates with the mood I’m trying to create. As the board grows the mood begins unfolding and ideas start oozing. It’s like cooking, a little bit of this…some of that…maybe a little this, and all of a sudden you’re getting some where. From here you can begin to move away from the moodboard and get that mouse wet. However, never forget where you came from. Check back in with your moodboard as the design progresses to make sure you haven’t strayed too far from your original vision.

• Install the firefox ad-on screen grab
• Give yourself a nice big photoshop canvas
• Use a background color
• Use sticky notes if there’s something specific you liked about a certain image that you might forget later
• Be messy. You can count pixels later
• Revisit early and often, keep it going
• Have fun!