Monday Muse: Mood Boards
Since I can remember, I’ve loved mood boards. Mood boards are inspiring to look at and create and delight the eye with a grouping of the artist’s inspirations made visible and cohesive. I always loved getting glimpses into artists’ studios and designers’ workspaces and seeing huge mood boards on the walls.
Mood boards show an artist’s thought process. From images that tell stories, to textures, to colors, mood boards show how artists connect their observations together to create new art.
I especially love mood boards that encompass not only imagery but swatches of fabric, written notes, old photographs, and ephemera like dried flowers and bits of old jewelry. Creating a compelling mood board is an art in and of itself. Mood boards do something fairly straightforward in that they help evoke the mood that the artist is going for in their artwork. Of course, fashion brands and interior designers use mood boards to give inspiration some direction when creating a collection or space. The mood board can consist of materials that the artist or designer wants to use, as well as colors, textures, different fastenings or fixtures, and more. Mood boards also give a sense of feeling and emotion. How the wearer of the clothes might feel or how the inhabitants of a house might spend a holiday. Mood boards help us push the work forward.
Kelly Wearstler is probably the mood board GOAT. She has such a keen awareness of things and spends a lot of her time on the hunt for inspiration like images, colors, textures, and patterns. Her interior design is so unique and interesting because she has a huge archive of knowledge to draw from as she makes her selections. I like to think of mood boards as knowledge made visible. The inside of the brain turned outward, a little glimpse into the things that propelled me to some creative resting point, where all that came before culminated into something new.
The other day I decided to have a little fun creating mood boards for my Summer ‘23 Vibe. I like to have a summer vibe because summer always feels like the most magical and most nostalgic time of the year. It’s okay to let your freak flag fly a little and the rules don’t seem so rigid. You can try on different personalities at will. I made four distinct summer mood boards: Dancehall Official, Honky Tonk Blues, Chelsea Girl, and Psychedelic Return. They all center around different ways of dressing and different music and of course, different vibes and libations. Next, I’m going to make a playlist for each one.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything just for fun like this and let me tell you I love looking at these mood boards. I find them so inspiring and they make me excited for the version of me I can create this summer. I’m going to make one more Art Trop board and really put all of my dream desires out there. A different future is not only possible, it can be fun to imagine and create. Curation begets creation. Have you ever made a mood board? Should I do a mood board tutorial? Let me know! Also which one of my Summer Vibes is your favorite? Right now I’m loving Psychedelic Return by just a hair more.
