A mood board is a visual illustration of a concept or direction that a designer wants to take for a project or a collection. Traditionally a mood board is a collage of images and text in order to describe the ideas behind the mood board and why they were picked.
Then in 2010, a global platform for inspiration and idea sharing was launched:
Often, the associations with Pinterest is with inventive cooking recipes, beauty tips, and quirky images. However, designers are now using this bookmarking based website to share ideas with their clients or just to compile images and text to get inspired for what they are working on.
It took me a while to feel comfortable using this form of inspiration gathering because through my collegiate education I learned how to collect ideas and inspirations in a sketchbook or using Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator. I do miss the joy of opening my sketchbook and seeing a cacophony of colors and textures to draw creative ideas from, but I do not miss the piles of magazines, the glue sticks and the hours spent arranging the pictures in a pleasing way. Pinterest allows me to compile the images into specific boards: either for collections I am working on, or general inspirations. I can add text to the images I "pin" so I can recall the feeling I had when I looked at the images.
I can also upload my own images to truly make it a personalized board to work from. I don't believe Pinterest will replace the older methods for development of mood boards, but I do find that this is a quick and efficient way to share ideas you are working with.
Please, visit my Pinterest to see what inspired my most recent collection of hand wovens.