Mood boards have become fundamental tools and a vital part of design industries to facilitate creative and innovative thinking processes. Even though some designers usually skip this part of the creative process, the execution of a proper mood board may define to some extent the future success of the project as well as provide the deep level of engagement of the designer in the project. The given essay discusses the importance of mood boards in the context of enhancing communication with clients and facilitating designers’ work.
Mood boards, or inspiration boards, are compilations of various inspirational elements that are used by designers to visually concertize ideas about the specific projects and introduce a certain mood, theme, or consumer world. If previously mood boards were created using paper, glue, and glitter, now they hit the digital realm to create designer-client communication. According to Endrissat, Islam, and Noppeney (2016), design briefs in the form of mood boards play a key role in the organizing and development process of new products.
The core reason for making a mood board is getting the client involved earlier in the designing process to meet his or her expectations. Mood boards enable clients to see the direction of the design before the designer invests time and effort into the work (“Why Mood Boards Matter,” 2018). Collaborative creation of mood boards results in having an open conversation with the clients to understand why they prefer certain colors, textures, and solutions. If created in the early stage of the creative process, this helps a designer avoid the client’s dissatisfaction with the final result.
Significant benefits of mood boards include saving the designer’s time which results in the faster production of the mockup. Even though some clients refuse to pay additionally for mood boards, these visual guides allow a designer to jump right into the process of visual prototyping leaving behind doubts that a client might not like the mockup. It should also be mentioned that mood boards are easy to edit which saves both time and effort.
Additionally, a mood board is an excellent way to find ideas and enthusiasm as beautiful illustrations may help find the right style and mood for the project. Experiments with mixing images of different colors may help designers to create a visually attractive color palette, even if elements of a user interface are not ready yet.
To sum up, it is hard to overestimate the role of mood boards in the creative process. Apart from enhancing communication with customers and involving them in a process, designers use mood boards to avoid misunderstanding with clients, save time and effort, and gain a client’s trust. Also, mood boards are powerful tools for inspiring designers and stimulating them to search for new solutions.
References
Endrissat, N., Islam, G., & Noppeney, C. (2016). Visual organizing: Balancing coordination and creative freedom via mood boards. Journal of Business Research, 69(7), 2353-2362. Web.
Why mood boards matter. (2018). Web.