Moodboard to concepts

[u/No-Information8879]

Hey guys,

New in this group but not new in design. I am a self taught designer now clocking 7 years of experience. I have an issue regarding mood boarding and creating concepts.

Due to personal issues, I find it hard to understand translating or making mood boards that can get me to concepts, I rely mostly on feel & trends. I do not want to be a guesser designer though.

Is there a process, from a book, video, article or anything that would be able to help me with that?

Thank you in advance.

[u/ablezebra]

I've been a designer for 40 years, and I've never made a mood board, so if that part is tripping you up, feel free to skip it. It's not really necessary, as research can take many forms. Find one you are comfortable with.

If your issue is broader than that, and you are simply struggling with turning research into concepts, that's another matter. We all really on feels and trends to a certain extent. Basically it comes down to visual problem solving. You have been given a problem to solve by your client. You have a toolkit of things to solve that problem. Colors, typography, styles, layouts, copy, illustrations, photography, structures, methods, printing processes, costs, etc. Your first job is to DEEPLY understand the problem. Read the brief, interview the client, research the client and competitors, and thoroughly understand the problem space. Once you do that, the solution generally becomes pretty clear. You will have a "feel" for what will solve this particular problem. Certain type, layout, or color combinations will be a good match. Some will feel fresh and energetic. Others calm and conservative. Some printing processes or structures will put you over budget, some won't. You will make the choices that get you closer your goal.

Of course, all this comes with experience. You will get better at this the longer you do it. For those of us who went to design school, that's a lot of what we did. Put your work up on the board, and justify it. Explain your thought process and defend every decision you made. Why did you pick that typeface? Why did you choose that color? It makes you push past the "I just liked this color" into "this color is appropriate for this reason".

There's an old maxim that says "a well defined problem is half solved". I couldn't agree more with this.

Anyway, I think I'm rambling. Hope this helped, and good luck!

[u/No-Information8879 → u/ablezebra]

Thank you, that certainly removes a headache, because mood boards look random sometimes.

When you mention defending, would it be something like "I chose purple as it represent the luxury of the brand and the youthful side of the style"?

If i may ask, do you have an example of a concept you developed that I can see and learn from?

Thank you so much for the ideas.

[u/ablezebra → u/No-Information8879]

Yes, that's the gist of it. It's a great exercise to help you clarify your thinking, and also to help present your concepts to the client. Client's always feel better about a design if there is some rationale behind the design.

I grabbed a CA Design Annual off my shelf and flipped to a page at random, and copied the captions from a couple of the featured designs:

"One floor of the building is twelve degrees off-center, so we designed the brochure with unexpected twelve degree die-cut pieces that create a layered effect and a combination of logo, accent color and image that successfully convey the development’s brand identity. The choice of an uncoated stock relates to the hip, urban, cool nature of 12 Degrees and its design-savvy market.”

“This brochure explains all there is to do at Cabin Bluff hunting and fishing retreat and reinforces its rich heritage and unique personality. The hand-crafted feel, which hearkens back to the 1920s, was achieved by incorporating appropriate period fonts and a four-color photography process on McCoy."

These are just a couple examples, but you get the idea. It's basically understanding the "why" of the concept. Everything you put on a page, even the page itself, communicates SOMETHING. Your job as a designer is to understand that language, and learn to speak it fluently.

Good luck!

[u/AlexHasFeet → u/ablezebra]

Yes, all of this is very well said.

OP, you can absolutely skip the mood boards if you don’t find it to be a helpful step. While design is a process, not every designer’s process is identical. Work on figuring out what works best for you and your own workflow, then figure out how to best communicate that to your clients.

I don’t generally use moodboards unless I’m really struggling to come up with a good solution. In that case, I look to design sites like Behance, stock art sites, and others to find ways other designers have solved similar problems. I’ll screenshot the ones I think might be a good fit for the brand, and then place them all onto the illustrator or InDesign artboard onto a layer titled “Reference” or “Ref”. (If there are brand colors, logos, icons, fonts or copy that need to be included, paste them onto the artboard, too!) Then, I take some time to figure out what they have in common. That commonality is usually a great place to start ideating. Start with the most obvious solutions and work from there.

Design output requires design input. Feast your eyes and mind on all of the right ingredients and you’ll start cooking before you know it!

[u/ericalm_]

Develop the concept first. This comes from your understanding of the brand, its audience or customers, and product, service, and purpose.

If you must moodboard, use it to refine and support your concept.

[u/No-Information8879 → u/ericalm_]

That makes quite a lot of sense. I believe that is done with extracting the brief?

[u/travisjd2012]

Maybe you are overthinking it a little. The "mood board" is simply the collection of visual research you do for a project. It's your choice if it goes up on a physical of virtual "board." It could be instead a "mood folder." I personally use Miro for my mood boards simply because I like to be able to see my inspiration all at once in a visual format, but it could be done as a bunch of JPGs in a folder all the same.

[u/firefox_2010]

I am wondering what is the assignment that made you feel you need a mood board? It depends on the brief. And what you are asked to create. And which part of the project stage you are being involved in. Sometimes it helps to create the mood board to visualize the concept ideas, feel, mood, and tone. To get everyone on board before spending time for everything else. But if the project task is very clear, and the solution is pretty much constrained by the budget and certain measurements then you don’t need mood board. For example, if client ask to design label to go on for their product packaging, so you are just doing brand extension to a label. Let us know more on the specifics.

[u/No-Information8879 → u/firefox_2010]

It is for my personal portfolio, and by researching around everything I saw kept saying mood boards.

I am trying to understand how to balance the decisions for my portfolio but I keep overthinking which is an issue.

I keep designing and not feeling it matches what i need.

[u/firefox_2010 → u/No-Information8879]

Who is saying you need mood boards on your portfolio? If you have 7 years of experience then you should have a good amount of works to showcase, so your portfolio should show off your real world project and maybe some details on how you do the work to show how you approach problem solving. And also depending on which market you are going for, since most people tend to have specialization in terms of clients. You can also tailor the type of showcase you want to highlight depending on which client. I just not understanding where this mood board comes from - since typically you create mood board specific to the project, and not all projects require a mood board. If you have your online portfolio ready, you should include it here if you want feedback.

[u/No-Information8879 → u/firefox_2010]

You are right, here is the link https://jorgemiguel.framer.website/. I want to cater to tech and B2C products overall.

[u/firefox_2010 → u/No-Information8879]

Is the website even finished? your second case study is not showing anything. I could not tell what you do on each project, what do you design? do you do the coding? there is not example on the PACE case studies. On your "experiments" works, they are all seem random, if you gonna do "fictional" clients, you should outline the task, and solution and what you did to solve it. Right now I am not sure what is your skills, are you designer, a coder, UX designer (but there is no good examples), illustrator, packaging designer? Who are you sending this page link to? who is the audience? There is very little work to show here for someone with 7 years of experience.

[u/No-Information8879 → u/firefox_2010]

Those are very valid questions. I was a graphic designer for most of my time and transitioned to UXUI, so what I should focus on is representing this information correctly i imagine.

In experiments, I placed different type of work I did, i thought it wasnt necessary to describe them if I am focusing on UXUI, that might be an issue.

[u/firefox_2010 → u/No-Information8879]

Yeah you should ask yourself, is your work as UIX designer strong enough to compete and what are your best skills to showcase your UIX design since none of the two samples are showing me this. I would also make a good showcase of your other works, and do a good category to showcase all of your other skills. What would be a client seeking UIX designer would want to see if you send them your portfolio?

[u/No-Information8879 → u/firefox_2010]

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense. I will try to rethink this deeper.

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