Mood Boards for Designers
Posted by Amy Lamp on October 3, 2009
If you’re working on a design project, a mood board is a great way to present the visual direction of a project or brand separately from the layout of a specific project. They’re a helpful step that helps keep everyone on the same page without a huge time investment.
Mood Boards for Designers from Amy Lamp on Vimeo.
Comments
Posted by Andrew M on October 4, 2009
Great presentation! I find that if you skip this step you end up paying for it later in the process. Most clients really need this look & feel step away from layout and content. Thanks.
Posted by Amy Lamp on October 5, 2009
Thanks, Andrew! It’s funny, it took me years to get to this step and I agree with you about paying for it later if it gets skipped. The way I used to do things, there would be this big reveal and hoping that the client said “Great, this is exactly what I had in mind.”
Posted by David Kypuros on November 9, 2009
I agree. This step takes a long time. Wireframes and comps are intuitive, this step takes a whole different skill set.
Posted by Brockdin Barr on November 9, 2009
Thanks Amy, Aside from getting creative juices flowing, Moodboards definitely make the design process a lot more tangible and understandable for clients and designers. Thanks for detailing your process so well.
Brock
Posted by Bjarni Wark on November 9, 2009
Most enjoyable, thanks for sharing your insights into the process of the mood board
Posted by Lex Vilanova on November 9, 2009
Nice job Amy! I can’t believe how long I’ve been designing and actually hadn’t run into the moodboard “methodology”. Of course, I had come up with similar ideas by way of collecting images and webSnips, etc. This always seemed to be enough for me, but it didn’t make it “formal” enough be involve my clients. With moodboards, I can invite my clients more effectively into the process. yay!
So, can ask you to divulge your “keyword” development process/worksheet. I’d love to find a a better way to facilitate this initial concept ideation. Thanks! By the way, I found this tool for moodboards: http://www.imgspark.com
Also, any chance you can post the links to the examples you mentioned ;)
Posted by Brad C on November 10, 2009
I actually created my first moodboard last week. It’s not a big project and the direction was a little ambiguous so I thought it might save time down the road.
How do you present these to a client? Is it in person, email, over the phone? Are there any questions you ask while presenting these that tends to get good feedback? Any kinds of questions or discussions to avoid when presenting? Thanks for the great resource.
Posted by MC on November 10, 2009
Great stuff, Im feeling very moody right now! Cant wait to put one together.
Posted by Amy Lamp on November 12, 2009
@lex Our process for developing keywords and themes goes something like this: Worksheets + Kim Stearns = Good Words. The worksheet I use to get things started can be found here http://files.fortyagency.com/FortyBrandScale.pdf and Kim is planning a screencast that will go more behind the scenes on keyword/theme development. For some projects we determine archetypes http://www.insideforty.com/635/the-20-universal-brand-types/ that help with direction, and sometimes we use keywords that the client has supplied to develop a few directions by grouping some together. I’ve found that trying to cover all keywords in one direction can defeat the purpose of focus, so giving a few options that each have a few keywords helps.
Most of the sample mood boards I mentioned at the end came from the Viget Labs post http://www.viget.com/inspire/perspectives-on-mood-boards/ which is a great post on the topic.
@brad If in-person is an option, I prefer that. I’ve found that if I just package them up and email them off the response isn’t great. Even with an explanation, it’s just easier for people to ask immediate questions and get immediate feedback. So if in-person isn’t possible, I like to email them just before a conference call. Generally when presenting I try to stick to finding out what their goals are and how to meet those goals, especially when confronted with “I don’t like that blue” statements.