Making a Moodboard

             

Moodboards are a really great way to organize your ideas for any type of creative project.  With a moodboard, you can decide the look, feel and color scheme of a project before you dive right into it.  It will help you stay focused on your outcome and produce a piece that is well-thought out and cohesive. --Something you can be proud to show the world!  Or put on the internet.  Or show no one.  It's all up to you.  Here is how I make a moodboard:

          

My process:

• I take about 30-45 minutes and scan through as many of my Pinterest pins as I possibly can.  Moving quickly is the key here, try not to linger and over-think.
• As I scanned, I re-pinned all of the images that really jumped out at me, for whatever reason, big or small.  I made sure to use ANYTHING + EVERYTHING I liked at that particular moment in time: clothes, accessories, quotes, typography, fine art, furniture, colors, photography, food, architecture... the more diverse your inspiration, the better, so don't hold back! 
• If you collect actual images/props from magazines and whatnot, you can definitely use those to.
• Next, I put all of these pins onto a new board and named it (ie. Renegade Princess or Dream Garden or My 30th BDAY).  
• After that, I went back through this new board to see what, if any, of the images wen't well together.  I looked to find the consistencies in what I was initially drawn too -- consistency in colors, shapes, mood, etc. I scraped any that didn't seem to fit and added a few more that meshed well.  At this point, you should be able to see a solid idea forming and thus a moodboard is born.
• Keep adding and taking away, further refining your moodboard as you find more inspiration.  Make little tweaks here and there until you are happy with the direction you are going in. Or toss it and start fresh.
• Need help?  Email onthelookout.info[at]gmail[dot]com for more tips :)

How do you corral all of the fantastic ideas you have?  Moodboarding?  Note-taking? None of the above?  I'd love to hear how you focus your creative prowress.  Leave a comment and let me know!

See a full collection of OTL moodboards right ova here >