10 tips to make a good moodboard

How many times have you heard the word moodboard lately? Not only in fashion, but also in our everyday life; it seems to be a term that is more fashionable than ever. Everyone is feeling the moodboard fever and even you are itching for that creative bug, aren't you? But do you really know what it means?

Moodboard literally means "inspiration board"; put like that, it seems simple, but once you get into it, you discover the complexity of the matter. María Eugenia Josa, PhD in applied creativity and professor at ISEM, defines it as "a creative tool that helps us to create the visual universe of a project". That is, to expose and land an idea graphically and visually.

Professor Josa gives us the keys to take advantage of these days at home to make a good moodboard, do you jump into the pool?

1. Before you start you must have a clear idea of what you want to capture, what is your goal with this moodboard. Remember that its main mission is to provide you with inspiration for a project: they are the ideas that will be seen in that project and that will mark the whole creative process.

2. The moodboard can be physical, with magazines, fabrics, paintings..., or digital, for this you can use Pinterest, Niice or Dropmark. Which one do you choose? Are you more traditional or version 3.0?

3. Once you have decided whether it will be a digital or physical version, the first thing to do is to gather the "material": photos, fabrics, textures, phrases, words, colors, typographies, objects, landscapes... Everything that will serve as inspiration.

4. Choose the shades that best represent your idea; these have to be the ones that predominate in the moodboard.

5. Select the keywords that have to do with the idea you want to reflect. Look for images that evoke those keywords.

6. Find a common thread: a kind of guide to help you tell the "story" of your project.

7. As your moodboard takes shape, you will realize that probably not all the images you have searched for will fit. Feel free to delete what you don't like.

8. A moodboard is not only composed of images: remember to also include those words and phrases that you have found and that perfectly reflect your idea.

9. Pay special attention to the aesthetics and take care of the composition and the chromatic range. The more attractive your work is, the more you will want to keep working and put it to work!

10. Don't be too literal and don't be afraid to mix it up too much. Great ideas often come from the most revolutionary concepts and perspectives.