Student Blog: The Importance of a Mood Board

I wouldn’t say that I’ve never been interested in the idea of writing a play, but I’ve never really considered it as a possibility until last semester.

I ended up in an introduction to theater class to fulfill one of my arts credits. For our class final project, we were split into groups of six. We had four weeks to come up with a plot, write a script, design a set, and execute our production. I was placed on the design team for my group, and I have to admit it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Besides the fact that we, as a group, had to come together and write a script, I had to bring my team's ideas to life, which felt like a lot of pressure at the moment.

For our designs, it was suggested that we create a small-scale set using a shoe box and draw up some costume ideas to help others visualize our play. I had never done something on this scale before, and it didn’t help that my team and I all had different perceptions of our characters and set.

That's when my professor taught me the importance of a mood board to pull ideas together. Before I knew it, I had an entire Pinterest board dedicated to the play and a Spotify playlist that I made, filled with songs that helped me focus on exactly how I wanted the set and costume designs to look.  

Each character had their own costume board, set board, and a carefully curated playlist that I listened to while designing their costumes. It made my process so much easier since I could now visualize all of my ideas together in one place and use that as a reference to bring them all together. 

The most important aspects to include in your mood board, I learned, are color and texture. You want it to be cohesive, but you don't want it to be boring. It’s also important to play around with it; you don't want it to feel perfect. Find out what works and what doesn’t, that's what it’s there for.

From the mood boards, I started to research different projects by others that curated a similar vibe to the mood boards and playlists I had made, and through my research, I was able to really understand what it meant to build a world from nothing but an idea.​

This process taught me so many valuable lessons on what it means to not just write your own story but actually bring one to life. While I don’t have any big plans to become a playwright just yet, I learned that I can actually use mood boards in all aspects of my life, which, in my opinion, has made me a better writer overall and has improved the ways I can be creative in my everyday life. 

 If you find yourself struggling to bring your ideas to life, I suggest taking a step back and making a mood board or two.