Student spotlight: Creating a Mood board

Fashion designing as a profession and art has evolved immensely, being more accessible than ever. Different aspects of fashion education have evolved, whereas others are still emerging. Possessing knowledge about fabrics, colors, silhouette and cuts is imperative, but presenting a creation holds equal significance. A mood board is one of the methods that can be used to present a design or a collection creatively.

Mood boards (also known as inspiration boards) help to visualize the design concepts and ideas and explore the look and feel of a project. There is a uniformity of colors, fonts, images, themes or layout. The mood board becomes a tool through which a designer and clients can have a better understanding of the designs. This covers everything, from what it needs, how to take it forward, what makes it tick and more. The board also acts as a brainstorming device in which new ideas can be developed or old ones refined.

A large number of designers use mood boards, and it is not limited to the fashion industry alone. In fact, creating an inspiration board is common for interior designers, web designers, landscape designing, wedding planning or it could be a normal collage made at home by a college going photography enthusiastic.

A mood board could be created on anything- a PDF file, PowerPoint or on a physical board, bulletin or even in a notebook. The content of the board should reflect the designer’s idea. A fashion designer, for instance, would create a mood board in which the theme of their collection would be apparent, the colors to be used, sketches of the outfits, illustrations, fragments of the fabrics to be used, the source of inspiration through which the collection has been created and anything that will be of any relevance to the designer.

Pranali Oswal's Mood Board

Pranali Oswal, a fashion student of Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion, has created a mood board in which she has beautifully exhibited her design and the source of inspiration. The renderings that Pranali has done are influenced by graffiti either inspired by the colors or by using text as print on the garment. Regarding the mood board, Pranali believes that they are important to designers as it gives direction to the collection while expressing the theme on its own. The board showcases the designer’s thought process giving the ideas a visual expression. 

Pranali Oswal's Mood Board