Women have long been harnessing the power of the mood board. We guys have been missing out. Here’s how to make one to boost your style game!
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Never underestimate the power of visualizing your best self and creating a guide to get you there. That’s essentially what a mood board is: a guide to take you in the right direction and align you with your intention. That’s why it’s important to know how to make a mood board.
To put it more simply, sometimes you just need a guide to remind you how you want to dress. Rather than reading or scrolling through blog after blog (though we really appreciate it), it would help you to have something more readily available and personalized.
Enter the mood board. They’re not just for photo shoots and design projects; they’re actually perfect for your personal style, too. This guide will show you how to create a mood board and what to include to make it something you’ll follow.
What to Include In a Mood Board
If you’re unfamiliar with mood boards, consider them visual guidelines for anything design or style-related. They assimilate the visual direction and feel of a project or an aesthetic (aka your personal style).
There’s no one correct way to make, maintain, or update a mood board. When it comes to a fashion mood board, they generally include guiding images or text.
Those images or text relate to your overall goals and vision. This often consists of style inspiration from magazines, celebrities, color palettes and texture swatches, silhouettes, structure, or anything that speaks to you.
The images don’t always have to indicate exactly what you want. They may invoke a feeling or an overall aesthetic. The important part is that all the mood board elements align with your overall vision for yourself.
In terms of personal use, mood boards are often similar to vision boards. For this guide, a mood board isn’t about vision casting; it’s about what you want your style to look like right now.
This is your creative exercise and guide for yourself. You don’t have to share it, so you can make it physical or digital. Allow yourself to tap into your own creativity without judgment.
What To Include in Your Fashion Mood Board
Fashion mood boards are a collection of anything that influences you. It should be a guide that puts you more in line with your style goals. It’s important to include visual and verbal cues, so you know exactly what you want.
Basically, next time you’re about to impulse shop, your mood board is your gut check.
Images
As you’ve probably assumed, images are the most effective pieces to include in your mood board. Include screenshots of your favorite celebrity and influencers, samples or cutouts from designers and magazines, and anything that inspires you.
Don’t just look for images of clothes; pick out accessories, shoes, and anything that will complete your wardrobe.
Save these images on your favorite social platforms, screenshot them from the internet, and cut them out of magazines. Nothing is off-limits.
Samples
Many clothiers and fabric shops offer fabric, texture, and pattern samples. These are important to include, too, because they’ll refine exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re building a physical mood board, you can request these.
It’s important to be as granular as possible. While it’s not set in stone, this should tell you exactly what you want out of your own style.
Text
Guiding words or phrases provide even more direction. They often define what more abstract images mean to you. They’re also great if you can’t find the exact images or visual cues for your inspiration at the moment.
Color Palettes
Don’t be afraid to include blocks of colors (think Pantone).
Knowing what colors you gravitate toward and work best in your wardrobe defines your vision even further. These act as your personal brand colors.
How To Make a Mood Board for Your Style
This example is for building a digital mood board. For this sample individual, the goal is to set some standards for fall fashion and move into a more tailored aesthetic for the upcoming season.
Canva is a great place to start. It’s not just for marketing graphics and IG carousels. You can create anything visual by just dragging and dropping images, videos, and text without having to teach yourself an entirely new software.
Setting up the Mood Board
In Canva, choose a blank canvas that feels big enough. Don’t stress too much. Your mood board can take up as many pages as you like.
Typically, a landscape-oriented project is the easiest to work with. Start with a canvas that makes the work easy for you.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can simply type “mood board” into Canva’s search feature under “Create Design” and get served with templates. Sometimes, a blank page can be a roadblock. Templates make it easy to maintain some structure.
Keep in mind that some of the templates are restricted to the premium subscription, but don’t let that stop you from drawing inspiration from them.
The best part about Canva is that you can access this mood board via the mobile app as well. So, when you’re out shopping, you can always reference your own guide.
Assemble Your Images/Inspiration
This is the fun part. Download or screenshot your favorite images or inspiration from Pinterest or Unsplash. Also, look to your favorite influencers, magazines, or whatever sources make sense to you.
Since this is for personal use (and not to be shared commercially or online per se), you don’t have to worry about copyright restrictions. If you do plan on sharing this, you’ll need to make sure you use noncommercial content.
Canva makes this easy, too. Just drag and drop images into the left panel, and they’ll automatically upload.
For physical mood boards, cut out your favorite magazine images and collect fabric samples. You can even search for vintage magazine shops that might hold some great inspo.
Organize Your Mood Board
Think about the flow of your mood board and how you plan to view and access it. It should be easy to follow for you. You can group things by style, color, or whatever makes most sense for you. You should want to reference this.
If that means it’s just a collection of random images that connect with you, that is totally fine. There is no right way to do this.
If you need some guidelines, think about a left-to-right orientation. For style, you can start with inspirational images. That would be the section that excites you.
Your subsequent sections can be organized however you want. Some ideas include the ideal garment structure, color families, and a list of where to shop.
Give yourself a workflow. That way, you can incorporate the images and content you’ve assembled and organize them. Having an overall structure to your mood board will also tell you what images or inspiration you’re missing to complete your mood board.
If creating a structure feels more like a hindrance, feel free to stick to one of the Canva templates.
Don’t forget to add text and other cues so you know how your mood board is organized. Have fun with it! Make this mood board come to life with your personality.
Visual sections and text sections are great so you can trigger your memory when you’re out in the real world shopping and curating your style.
Mood Board Pro Tips
The best mood boards are living documents for you to reference and edit as you develop your style. Nothing is permanent because your interests will shift over time. Your board is just a good reference point.
That also means that you should go in every few months to update your mood board and make sure it aligns with your goals and vision.
Mood boards can be the first major step into personal branding. So, when you’re assembling yours, think about how you want to present yourself to the world.
Look to people, brands, places, and anything else that evokes the same feeling you’re after. Put those things on your mood board.
Nothing is off-limits. Anything that inspires you should be on this mood board. Be it architecture, anime, or anything in between, make sure you reference it.
Approach this exercise with our judgment or fear of what anyone else might think. This document is for you, so let your freak flag fly! You don’t have to share it with anyone.
If you’re looking for more structure, use your mood board to create a list of needs and wants for your wardrobe.
You can check off items that you acquire and identify any gaps that will get you closer to what you want out of your style. It’s a healthy way to avoid impulse shopping and even overspending.
Do You Know How To Make a Mood Board?
Now that you have this guide, it’s time to try your hand. Make sure to give yourself some time to assemble inspiration and organize it in a way that makes sense for you. This isn’t a race, and you probably already have some inspiration tucked away.
If you have any questions or comments, leave them down below!