Even a super gifted design pro may find it anything but difficult to misinterpret what a client wants. Instead of spending countless hours creating pretty design presentations just to have it rejected by the client because it isn’t what they were looking for, we create mood boards.
Mood boards are part of our Project Starter Service, because it is our business and our passion to learn and know what looks fab and what looks fugly. And we consider that obligation very important. Sometimes what one person calls eclectic another might see as a piece of sh*t. I mean, we’re not perfect.
Here’s another repurposed article from 5 years ago, from our old blogspot blog with a few updates, while we are still working on new content. The tools we used are SketchUp, Vray and Photoshop.
What is a Mood Board?
No, it’s not a board where you collate your different moods or feelings. LOL! Mood boards allow design pros the ability to show clients and colleagues a proposed look without investing too much in a failed direction — in short, it’s a style guide.
Our design career lately has been primarily digital in nature, THANKS COVID-19! But compared to 3D visualization, mood boards are more beneficial than many may realize. Here’s why . . .
#1: THEY HELP ESTABLISH THE BASICS
Mood boards help create the majority of the baselines that will eventually go into a style guide: color palettes, layout, furniture, materials, patterns, accessories, etc.
#2: THEY ARE FREE FLOWING
You aren’t creating the design itself yet, so if there are any differences between your vision and your clients’ they can be easily altered and you will also have a clearer idea of the direction of the project.
#3: THEY ARE TIME-SAVING
Because of item #2, mood boards lessen the conceptualization time of a design project by creating a library of approved elements, materials or components.
#4: THEY CAN HELP SET A TONE FOR THE CLIENT
If a client ain’t happy with an element of the board, you can change only that element instead of recreating the entire design, which means your precious productivity isn’t hindered when you finally proceed to the planning phase.
We will use one of our past projects as an example. So here’s the floor plan of the whole apartment unit, but we’re only gonna focus on the highlighted part, the kitchen. This may be challenging to understand for some people, so we will try to write a blog about reading architectural plans/blueprints in another post.
Below is a sample of a digital mood board for the kitchen we are going to design. In this board, we created a collage of kitchen appliances, proposed accessories, colors and materials for his minimalist kitchen in his apartment. If time permits, we will update this post with a simple Bill of Materials for a small project like this.
And after the approval of the initial proposal, we made it come to life through 3D architectural visualization for the client to have a better understanding of where the items in the list above will go. TADA!
A Proposed Simple Kitchen Interior Fit-Out
Nice kitchen design. I have no idea whatsoever on how to do this kind of stuff. I know you studied this, but still, you seem really good at what you do.
I didn’t know about mood boards until I read this post. But I guess this is something an architect shows to the client and not the other way around?
Thanks for sharing!
We are renovating our house soon and I really need to make me a mood board, thanks for sharing!
Hello, Rhoda! I'll show this to my husband. I think kailangan nila ng contact na pwedeng gumawa ng 'mood boards' for their clients. uPVC and modular kitchen cabinets yung inooffer nila. 🙂
Is this the same with auto cad? This is the first time I’ve heard of mood boards.
It works either way mommy 🙂 The mood board is a style guide. But if the client isn't sure what their style is, we create 'boards' containing objects/furniture/colors/materials/fashion etc, that we think may look appealing to the client.
Ui! Really? I'd love to help them out with design visuals! Thanks so much Mommy! =)
I totally agree! As an event planner, mood boards belp me a lot in pitching ideas and/or translating my clients' ideals to visuals. I use Adobe Photoshop too. But when I'm on the go, PhotoGrid works as well. And yes Pinterest!!! Thanks for sharing and nice kitchen design! 🙁
The designs are really nice 🙂 I don't do mood boards since I'm not really an artistic person. I just copy whatever I see on Pinterest, show it to the husband and designer and that's it :))
Learned something new today — mood boards. Thanks much!
By the way, really nice visualization 🙂
The first I've encountered of moodboards is when I was doing wedding planning. This is really a good idea if there are clients involved so as to get a clear direction of the design.
I've seen how mood boards were used to do a bedroom makeover at one of my favorite parenting blogs. The correspondence between the mom and the designer were all done online. I was amazed. I kinda use moodboards, too, to put together inspirations for our future house (both the starter and the forever ones haha). It's probably why I started a Pinterest account in the first place.
I do use mood boards, too, but for planning my kids' DIY birthday parties.
Cool! Our business is pretty similar. I'm still in the process of getting my 'shop' together. I'm helping one client at a time with DIY design projects. Hihi. First I create moodboards, either through a secret board in Pinterest or a .jpg file. Sometimes I put everything in MS Word, like a shopping list with pictures of the products. I'm very flexible with clients. I always make sure that they get the design they want in the best way they can understand and appreciate it. =)
I'm addicted to Pinterest! I go there whenever I feel uninspired. One glance at my moodboards, and boom! The ideas are flowing again. 🙂
It's my first time to hear of mood boards! Thanks for sharing this idea!
I've never thought more of kitchen redesigning. Maybe when we get to have more space and budget 🙂