Moodboards and Colour Schemes … Yes, Please!

When it comes to building anything with colour I’m always all in. And chances are if you are interested in design, much like myself, you are always looking for inspiration. And if you’re anything like me, maybe you are constantly bookmarking designs you find online or your compile boards of inspiring work on Pinterest. But sometimes the inspiration can be an area where others struggle on finding the “perfect” colours to showcase their business. So, to help ease this frustration I’d thought I’d break down how to choose your colour scheme in just a few easy steps. Keep in mind while working on your ideas that visualization then brings inspiration.

What is a moodboard?

To narrow this inspirational process down quickly and simply, it is a physical or digital collage of ideas that are commonly used in fields of creativity (e.g. graphic/web design, fashion, etc.). A moodboard can include pretty much anything – photography, designs, illustrations, colour palettes, textures, descriptive words – anything that helps you define the direction you are looking to go towards.

With that being said, starting any design process with a moodboard is a good idea for the following two reasons:

1. It helps you with inspiration before you actually being to streamline the design process. It will also help cut down the time you spend staring at a blank screen.
2. It helps your clients by giving them an idea of what the finished product will look like and allows everyone involved to agree on a direction before too much effort has been put in. It also helps avoid misunderstandings that may result from trying to verbally describe a concept.

Today we are looking at how to use moodboards to skyrocket all those amazingly big ideas you have for your business, so focussing on point number 1. Well, now that you have a good grasp of how these boards can be beneficial to your planning process, let’s take a look at some fun tips on how to get the most out of this fun process.

Step One – Visualization:
Visualization of your business as a whole is always the first step to creating the perfect flowing colour scheme. By visualizing the look and feel of your entire business, your imagination can jump-start the rest of the design process. Once you have envisioned the look and feel that you want, it is now time to start collecting your inspiration. Collecting images, ideas and colours for your moodboard bring your true vision to life. When deciding on a colour range, you can either

1. get inspired by a handful of images and in a secondary step create a palette; or
2. start with colour choices right off the hop and search for the corresponding images that underline your ideas.

Step Two – Storytelling:
It is always best to start your search with keywords which gives clarity and helps bring focus to the main design idea you have for your business. As a second step, translate these words into moods, colours and even concrete materials. This will then become the art of telling your story. And trust me, you want the visuals of your business to tell your audience not just any story, but your story otherwise they are going to scroll onto the next business. So, by grouping several shades within one colour can help you decide which work best together and which don’t. The way you present your colour palette is completely up to you and of course very personal. It is also very common to come up with two or even three different concepts.

Okay, now it’s time to get organized.

Step Three – Organization:
Moodboards can truly be whatever you need them to be – from a wild and crazy brainstorming collage to an orderly outline. But an important approach to try is to use your board to organize all of the different pieces you collected and figure out a potential style. If you do happen to opt in for this approach, a big part will involve making sure you have a well thought our plan that hits all the required points. This meaning you have included all the “must haves” such as fonts, typography, colours and wording. When it comes time to sit down and start actually building the design, having a visual plan such as this will give you a roadmap to work from and speed up your workflow.

Step Four – Creation:
Now that you have all of your inspiration prepared, you can get started on preparing the layout of your board. You can choose to use many different types of programs or online platforms to create your layout. That choice is truly up to you and meant for what you are most comfortable with. P.S. If you are an Adobe fan, here is a great tutorial on building moodboards in InDesign.

To help get you started if you have never built one of these boards before, is a simple breakdown of what the layout should “roughly” look like.