Creating a vision or mood board 

First things first. What is a vision board? What is a mood board? And why would I want to make one for myself or my business?

Vision boards:

A vision board is a visual representation of your goals. Most of the time it’s a physical collection of items, they might be photos, magazine clippings, quotes or imagery of objects which symbolise your goals and aspirations. The slow process of sourcing pictures then cutting and sticking your vision board together gives you time to reflect and practise some mindfulness.

The vision board could be personal, or it can also be a professional way of goal setting. Vision boards are all about the big picture mindset – and the goals you’re picturing shouldn’t be day to day goals that are easy to achieve, you should be picturing long term big ideas.

If it depicts your target vision for your business, keeping your vision board in your workspace can give a flash of inspiration, especially if long term strategy planning or working on new creative ideas.

If getting out a glue stick seems highly unappealing, sometimes people collage the images digitally, then use it for something else they see every day, like their phone’s home screen.

If all of that doesn’t sound like you, and you want to focus on the here and now of what you want to be doing, and the direction you want your brand to be going in, a mood board is the better board to put together.

Mood boards:

If you did art at school, you might be familiar with making a mood board at the start of a new project. You collate together imagery, items, colours patterns, and any other visual inspiration to set the tone for a project.

Then you would collage these pieces together and if you get stuck, refer to this starting point for inspiration. They’re used by all sorts of designers (graphic, fashion, textile, product etc.) and all sorts of creatives to communicate the ‘feel’ of the project or idea they’re working on.

They’re helpful to have as they pull together the aesthetic you want your business to be showing the world.
You can refer back to them when working on new ideas, to check they fit this main aesthetic you’ve set for yourself. And they can also be great to share with people working with you, so they can understand how you see your project/brand style and influences.

So should I make one? 

They’re both similar ideas. One is designed to help you with long-term goals, and the other is a melting pot of creative inspiration for a project. One will probably suit you more than the other and ultimately would best inspire you.