MOOD BOARD

INDESIGN

Moodboards are a great way of organizing your ideas for a design project. You
can simply use a moodboard as a personal creative aid, providing inspiration
and direction for tackling a brief.
A moodboard needs to emotionally connect to the viewer. Your selection of
images, colors, textures and typography will come together to give an
emotional undertone to the board. This may sound difficult and a bit deep,
but dont worryhave a think about what you want your designs to
communicate in simple terms.

Try to pick a range of images: some with people, some without, some
landscapes, and some with plain textures or simple patterns that catch your
eye.
Example of ideas/images
Blue Door Blue Jeans Wood
Paper Cloudy Sky Jungle Scene
Winter Woods Starry Sky

Step 2
Create a 9 h x 12 w landscape file in InDesign
Set everything to the following
Notice the number of columns 6 and no facing page

3. Create different layers

Layer 1 Images
Layer 2 Transparent Overlay
Layer 3 Typography a
Layer 4 Border
Layer 5 Square Grid
Layer 6 Diagonal Strokes

Lock all the layers except for the border which we will create first. Make sure
the Border layer is active:
Draw a 7 pt stroke rectangle around to the outside (do not go to the red
bleed line)
Create a series of 3 horizontal 4 pt stroke line segments. Create the first
one at the horizontal midpoint, Do the same vertically down the columns.
Example on next slide

The Border is done on the border layer, and the

grid on the square grid layer.

Lock the border layer and unlock the image layer. Select the Rectangle Frame Tool
(F) and drag to create a square frame that fits neatly in one of the grid sections.in one
of the grid sections.
Drag images from Adobe Bridge (have InDesign and Bridge open side by side) and
place into the squares, some might take up double but keep that to 2-3.

Try to group similar colors to create groups of color. And Dont be afraid to repeat
images across the board, particularly if you want to draw attention to a particular
image, color or texture. Leave a couple of squares blank, scattered at different points
on the board.

To add color open your swatches and select the eyedropper tool on the left hand side
toolbar (right above the hand tool).
Sample a color (in the example the red wood on the bottom) by clicking on it with the
eyedropper. The color is picked up and then click on the new swatch icon on the
bottom of the palette. Convert it to CYMK by double clicking on the swatch.
Choose the rectangle frame (not the rectangle image frame) and some unused boxes
with color. Choose one or two more colors to fill. Do not overdue the color.

You may need to rearrange images, drag them off and replace with others.

Lock the image layer and unlock the border layer and grid layer. Drag a selection
around all layers so all lines are selected. Change the stroke to white. Careful about
the fill and stroke icon, by default the fill will most likely be active.
The next step is to lock these layers and add a couple of circles in the intersection of
a grid (no more than 3). Make sure you are on the circle layer. Fill a couple in with
the same color scheme of the squares and perhaps another one fill with a texture.

Go to your transparency layer and using the pen tool create a triangle over one of
the squares. Use the eyedropper tool to choose the dominant color in the image
and then go to effects>transparency and reduce the opacity to 60%.

Remember when creating a shape with the pen tool you need to close the shape,
a small circle will appear. You can then use the direct selection tool to modify the
triangle so it is properly aligned. Add 4 5 transparent triangles. Also, the
triangles should be in different rotation positions.

Unlock the layer with the diagonal strokes (lock the transparent layer) and create a
diagonal line across the frame. Make the line segment a 4 pt white stroke. Adjust
the line as needed (zoom in Ctrl +). If you have line cutting a large picture in half.
Go to the grid layer, unlock and use the scissor tool to cut the line at the
intersection and do the same for the opposite side. Remove the cut segment by
deleting.

Add some text. Dont go overboard and choose singular words that represent the
Mood Board. Perhaps choose a singular letter and change the effect to multiply 70%,
or do the same with the word(s).

Review

Connect your ideas with and emotional response

Try to spot dominant colors
Create a simple layout grid
Choose your images and place them in Adobe Bridge drag and
drop them into the grid. Rearrange if necessary.
Introduce different shapes, transparencies and typography