MOOD BOARD

Oh how I love theE

mood board

I don’t know too many creative folks who don’t appreciate a beautifully crafted mood board … they are extremely satisfying to design and endlessly useful as a creative and marketing tool. Pinterest, of course, takes the cake as the greatest mood board or you might say “mother board” of all.

Mood boards serve many purposes, starting with organizing a project's inspiration. They're a valuable resource to help keep the style and aesthetic of a project consistent with a client's goals and expectations. They're also an excellent way to refine a project's style before diving into the actual design process.

After guiding the creation of a collection, the mood board can also become an effective persuasive design element that provides an instant emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. I return to mood board inspired creative as often as I can to deliver authentic, engaging, timeless content.

Recently, I was commissioned to create a mood board for the launch of the India Hicks & Penelope Chilvers fall shoe collection ( Penelope Chilvers ). India’s deep family history is a constant theme & inspiration for her designs whether she’s working on a shoe, bag or boot. Blessed with an amazing archive of inspirational design work from her father David Hick’s famed interior design career and a family tree of rather interesting historical characters - not the least of which is her grandmother Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma who takes center stage in India’s shoe collection story, India’s mood boards are always rich with family heirlooms, photographs, natural elements and clever memories all neatly tied together.

Authenticity is very important to the India Hicks brand and while I could have easily created a digital mood board for her brand story, she valued the time and effort of carefully crafting a 3-dimensional board and photographing it. In my experience, great design really does come down to the raw emotive details and staying true to your brand ethos.

This mood board creative was then leveraged across social media as part of the launch story reel, as in-store signage at POS and place setting decor at the launch/influencer press event in London.