An Ode to Teen Vogue

Some terms become so familiar to you that you can forget not everyone knows what they are. Many times I try to explain my design process to someone and I can tell that I'm confusing them. Not because of how complex and intricate my design process is, but because I'm using terms that aren't used outside of the design field. One of the most common beginnings to the design process is a mood board.

Little did I know, I had been creating mood boards since late-elementary school. My best friend, Lindsey, and I would flip through the newest issue of Teen Vogue and cut out the images that spoke to us. As Nickelodeon played in the background, we compiled these inspirational images and glued them onto a single page of 8.5x11in computer paper. Seeing how different our finished collages were was fascinating to me, because we pulled images from the same exact magazine. However, you probably wouldn't know that just looking at them.

This is almost exactly what a mood board is. For a Fashion Designer, a mood board should include images that speak to the theme, emotion, and color palette of your new project. Mood Boards show the textures, colors, lines (organic vs inorganic, symmetrical vs asymmetrical), functionality, prints, emotions, fabrics, and silhouettes that you want to include in your collection. Sometimes an image can be included in a mood board for no supposable reason other than you want your collection to evoke the same feeling that this picture has evoked in you. There aren't any rules to a mood board! You can do whatever you want, and if it feels right then it is right.

Our program has a tradition of assigning each senior a board in the room, and that is their board to pin up pictures, fabric swatches, illustrations, and whatever they can find to evoke the theme of their collection. Notice my (maybe) excessive use of the word evoke? That really is what I feel a mood board is. It needs to speak to the heart of your designs. As a freshman, I stared at each senior's mood board and just dreamed of the day that I would be able to pin up my mood board. It feels really weird that it's my time to pin up a mood board, make a collection, and plan a fashion show. In my head it feels like I'll just be going to school in the fall like any other year.