Let's Talk About: Mood Boards

It looks like summer is winding down. Not that the weather is changing, but September is almost here, and those leisure free days are at a premium. It's time to start thinking about dressing again: wearing more than a brief dress and flip-flops.

This wonderful photo of the 1940's "New Look" is so inspiring. It's a "Vogue" cover from 1948, and so much of what we see here is on trend for the coming year. The overtones of gray, the slightly Victorian air to her look, the vintage mirror and cool men's hat, gloves and umbrella all tie this theme together.

Why not make a mood board showing a current fashion trend you like. Start by gathering up photos of inspirations, colors, fabrics and trims to create a design direction for your own 'look' or wardrobe. It's fun to start with a photo you like, then bring in elements that support the look you are going for.

Here is the original 1948 photo with my fashion inspiration from it. I used current color and style trends to put this together. I found the coat design at Butterick 5824 This coat is a new retro style designed by blogger Gertie. The wonderful soft orange-red tea rose is from FairytailFlower on Etsy. The jewelry photos are of vintage pearls, necklaces and other accessories that helped me to visualize this 'look'. I also included a velveteen swatch in black to complete the design direction.

Mood boards are an important part of the design room. They help to show everyone involved the 'story' or 'concept' for a single item or a whole line. This is a perfect example of non-verbal communication. Originally these were created from magazines and newspapers, but as digital media has grown, so has the available image pool. More designers are using digital technologies to create their mood boards. The added bonus is that these can be easily sent by email or text, and can be printed up when several copies are needed.

While Adobe Photoshop is more commonly known, other technologies such as PowerPoint can be used to compile a mood board. To use PowerPoint, simple create your collage on a single slide. You can even add print. Save this image as a jpg, rather than a PowerPoint presentation and you can use this in your own work, blogs and other media.


This original article on mood boards is part 5 of a series on fashion design that are posted here at Pintucks. The contents of this article are the intellectual property of this blog. Please do not copy any content to another blog or digital media without contacting me first. I will ask that you link back to this article and give reference to this source within your feature. If you are using content for a research paper or project, please link back to this page in the traditional academic format, thank you!