Get In the Mood With These Event Mood Board Essentials

By: Deanna DeCraepeo, Account Executive, South Florida

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: mood boards are ✨pure magic!✨From kickstarting your creativity to more effectively communicating with your graphic design team to wow-ing your clients and stakeholders, mood boards really are an essential tool for event planning and design. At their core, these next-level collages visually capture the look and feel of an event and provide a clear foundation for defining the overall aesthetic. By organizing colors, textures, elements, and imagery, mood boards help refine your vision and ensure a cohesive and consistent event experience from start to finish. That’s why it’s so important to know how to create a mood board. However, this technique can be overwhelming, especially if design is not your forte. Not to worry! Consider this your guide through the essentials so you can master your event’s mood.

Start With Your “Why”

Before starting your mood board, it’s important to define your event’s purpose, audience, and theme (these will be your north star throughout the design and planning process). If you’re creating a high-octane annual sales kickoff to get the team pumped and invigorated, then a chill, beachy vibe is probably not the right fit. Start by doing some research. Peek at past events for ideas, and once your gears are turning, move to Pinterest (the mecca for all things creative inspiration) to get more specific. It’s easy to fall down the Pinterest rabbit hole, so keep your searches finetuned to start. Look for key elements like centerpieces, color schemes, textures, and patterns. Save everything you like that feels cohesive and reflects your event’s “why,” and eliminate anything that doesn’t ring true.

Get a Little Help From Your Friends

While creativity is the name of the mood board game, staying grounded is important. One of the best ways to keep your head out of the clouds is to pull in real pieces from vendor partners, like linens or furniture rentals. Looking at your practical options alongside your collected inspiration will help you maintain balance and avoid an overwhelming lack of cohesion. Canva is especially helpful here as it enables you to render these elements, from custom lounge groupings to statement bars.

Can’t you see yourself sipping a Mai Tai amidst this tropical oasis? This mood board pairs inspirational centerpieces and decor with real-life furniture and linens to make the dream aesthetic a reality.

The Finer Points of Refining

Fashion icon Coco Chanel once gave this famous advice: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.” Translated to mood boards, this means simplifying your design until it feels right. Before presenting, step back and review your work with fresh eyes. Have a friend or colleague look at it to get a different perspective. Once you’ve streamlined, ensure all key components are well represented and defined. These include a color palette, florals, bar, linens, chairs, and one standout feature. When everything is thoughtfully showcased and aligned, you’re ready to present!

Trick of the Trade: Peel ‘N Stick Wallpaper

Since we’re all friends here, we’ll let you in on one of our decor secrets: peel-and-stick wallpaper. Our genius Creative Services Manager, Annalise Corso, has recommended this to our team whenever they face a design inspiration roadblock. With so many beautiful options and applications, what seems like a minor design decision can really help everything fall into place! Using this material, you can add a super unique, customizable element to your design and incorporate it in unexpected ways. Best of all, the technology has come a long way recently, so venues and vendors don’t need to worry about damage. We regularly use wallpaper to add texture, color, and pattern to spaces in a functional and visually striking way.

Keep calm and stick it on! This design just wouldn’t be the same without our gorgeous sticky friend enabling us to use pops of color and dimension to add an artistic edge at every turn.

Using the Right Tools the Right Way

With seemingly endless design programs out there, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Sometimes, even the tools themselves can leave you dizzy with options. Here are some tips on maximizing your use of the two most important tools in our mood board belt.

Pinterest

Remember when we mentioned avoiding the Pinterest rabbit hole? Well, Alice, this one’s for you. When using this tool, it’s important to keep your scope streamlined and your searches specific. If you find something that’s close to what you’re looking for but not quite right, scrolling through the related pins below can reveal just what you want. However, don’t get lost in endless scrolling! If nothing catches your eye in the first few rows, try a new search or social media platform like Instagram or TikTok.

Canva

If you thought your only option was to use design tools such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to create mood boards or visuals, Canva will change the game. Instead of building everything from scratch, Canva provides a wealth of built-in resources that streamline the design process. You can start with their templates, utilize grids and frames for organization, and easily layer and align elements. Plus, Canva has a ‘Brand Kit’ feature, ensuring brand consistency and cohesion across your designs. Even better, you can share these designs with your team.

Reality Check Yourself

Integrating actual event decor and furniture pieces directly into your mood board is one way to keep your designs from going off the rails. However, it is just as important to thoroughly understand the spaces you’re designing for. You need to be aware of any spatial limitations—whether it’s footprint, layout, or logistical constraints—so you can create a functional design. You also want to honor any existing architectural details of the space. Trust us, you don’t want to be fighting against a visual element that you can’t change! Everything in your mood board should serve a purpose so you can strategically enhance the event’s aesthetics and flow.

Here, you can see how our team incorporated existing elements in the space, like these airy petal-like pillars, into the core of their event design to emphasize cohesion.

 

Our last words of advice: Have fun, and always add your personal touch! You’ll always create something unique by infusing your creative mind into your event design. Keeping your aesthetics human-centric will always resonate with your audience and make your event more authentic and memorable. Want more mood board tips and tricks? Reach out to our team any time! We can’t wait to see what you do next.