Let’s Talk....Mood Boards
We, interior designers, love a mood board!
It’s an important tool allowing us to showcase our inspiration behind the vision of the space, to communicate our ideas to clients and how the proposed design meets their brief. It needs to be informative but also take the client on a visual journey and for that reason, it needs to also be visually appealing.
Personally, I think it’s one of the most exciting initial stages of a project where I get to have a creative input as much as in the project itself with the look and feel of the space, but also in the way I choose to design the board itself, it’s a two fold of creativity!
However, depending on designers, it can take on different forms. Understanding what kind of mood board a design studio is offering is key in managing expectations and avoiding disappointments further down the line, so let’s have a look.
Concept vs final stage
The type of mood board you get really depends on the stage of the project. Initially and as its name suggests, a “mood board” is a visual document used to carry the idea of how a space would feel. So we are looking at a mood, a feeling, an atmosphere or ambiance and not at an exact room arrangement or specification of items.
Sure, to get our ideas across we are using some photos to highlight the core of the concept we have in mind, but it’s crucial to understand that they are inspirational photos of other projects, that we may have done in the past or that we find in magazines, online or on social media, and it is therefore not the exact space and furniture you will be getting with your design. It is actually impossible to present a client at the early stages of a project with such specifics as we are essentially creating an unique space for you, through the design process. What we really aim to do is to introduce you with a feeling, an overall colour palette and some key elements we think would benefit the space.
Typical mood board for the concept stage
It’s then, once you have approved the design direction that we spend a lot more time refining everything and getting into the details. We source the perfect products for you and your space, within your budget, that perfectly fits in terms of dimensions and colour scheme.
At this more advanced stage of the design process, your designer is in a position to present you with a mood board showing the exact specifications for your project. It can include some technical drawings such as floor plans and elevations showing the exact placement of the various items of furniture, can be accompanied by some sketches, perspectives or 3D photo realistic visuals, to really help you with visualising what the space would look like with those specific items.
Space plan mood board style
There is also another type of mood board used particularly when projects have a really quick turn around or the service is more of a flash advice. This kind of mood board has a floor plan with photos of specific items pointing to each on the plan. The client still gets the overall intent for the design and feel of the space but at the same time gets more specifics. Essentially, the more conventional design process is squeezed into a single visual document.
Digital vs physical
It might be obvious but online design services like the ones offered by Vibration Interior will most of the time create digital mood boards only, for the various stages of the design so from concept to final stages. Some might offer physical mood boards too with actual samples but it’s not a general rule so make sure to double check this if it’s something really important in your decision making process.
In a more conventional setting, digital mood boards tend to be preferable at the early stages, when presenting the concept, but as the process goes on, the designer usually prepares a board with physical samples of fabric, wallpaper, flooring, paint and other finishes of the scheme. We then don’t talk of a mood board anymore but of a sample board showcasing all the finishes together.
Sample board
Perspective vs flat lay
Some designers will recreate a space in 2D, on paper, with various items placed in a 3D arrangement within the room, almost recreating a perspective of the space but with a 2D feel, without any light and shadows to enhance the perspective effect.
Others offer more of a grid or magazine style mood board, where there’s no attempt to a perspective effect, the various samples and photos of items (furniture, lighting etc…) are laid flat on the board or paper.
Both can describe the same space, but with the approach that the designer thinks is best suited.
Vibration Interiors creates flat lay mood boards, and during the design development, they are complemented with a 3D visual of the space. That way clients are not missing out but instead getting two visual documents complementing each other.
Flat lay mood board
Perspective of the space
At the end of the day, there’s not one type of mood board preferable above another, it really depends on the business model and structure of the design studio and the service provided for a specific project.
The aim of any kind of mood board remains to communicate visually with the client, to create a space in line with the brief and the client’s aspirations.
I hope this post provided you with useful insights, as always if you have any questions please reach out, I’d love to hear from you!