I normally create my own mood boards in advance of a shoot to. help refine my own process even if a client has one to work from. From there, the client will probably give feedback about the suitability of the overall idea or the strength of certain items on the mood board over others.
For me a perfectly formed mood board is a blessing and I wanted to share some mood boards taken from one of my campaigns which shows a true feeling of what could be achieved in the chosen location of Iceland.
What is a good mood board
They can help refine your ideas for clients or for your team. Perhaps you are starting from a blank slate and you want to find inspiration. Perhaps you already have a strong idea but want to affirm to yourself that it comes together as you imagine and guide yourself through the many creative decisions ahead. In either case, a mood board will give you the clarity you need before you start buying materials or building elements.
It helps you communicate your ideas to others. I normally create my own mood boards in advance of a shoot to. help refine my own process even if a client has one to work from. From there, the client will probably give feedback about the suitability of the overall idea or the strength of certain items on the mood board over others. They might even choose between multiple mood boards the designer has used to present different options.
A PAGE FROM MY ORIGINAL POLAROID BOOK USED AT THE BEGINNING OF MY CAREER – MENSWEAR CAMPAIGN ON LOCATION PORTUGAL – CIRO CITTERIO
It was tricky to create a mood board in the past and that was purely because there just wasn’t the chance to do this. there was no online in those days. The best option was to do a few days recce at the location and then use POLAROIDS to document it. I would then stick these polaroids into a book and then run through them with the client, where we would then place outfits and models to the location and note this down for the shoot the following day.
This was the only way to demonstrate to a client or team what was the thought process to the shoot. The other way was to use tear sheets from leading magazines and to create a loose page mood book. I would add the tear sheets from Italian Vogue, and a whole range of magazines and then when added to the book and then we would use this as a reference for model, poses and ideas we could interpret at our particular location.
For me a Mood board is a rather familiar thing. When I first assisted there was a process of recording the shoot for the photographer by noting light and exposures and then how the film would be processed and all in a book. My own process developed to create my own book for notating my shoots and recording film exposures and this was a record of the shoot. I personally developed this to include the locations post arriving at a location.
Below is an example of an actual mood board created by German Production for their own client Lambertz, this is how the secured the campaign and when this was shown to me it really didn’t say too much and i thought very difficult to interpret. I therefore felt compelled to re-engineer them to suit me and my team.
You can see clearly that there was not really much you can interpret from it. Where were the locations, who were the. models and what are the clothes and concepts for each shot combined
Below is an example of an actual mood board created by German Production for their own client Lambertz, this is how the secured the campaign and when this was shown to me it really didn’t say too much and i thought very difficult to interpret. I therefore felt compelled to re-engineer them to suit me and my team.
You can see clearly that there was not really much you can interpret from it. Where were the locations, who were the. models and what are the clothes and concepts for each shot combined
A Moodboard is an important part to shooting effectively. Mood boards are not about finding visuals to copy but to inspire the creative team or two follow a creative directive from agency, brand or PR. They will often contain elements that will not appear in the final images. These photos are supposed to represent the qualities of the brand or the desired aesthetic.