How to Create Your Lifestyle and Design Inspiration Boards
Do you have too many ideas in your head that you cannot make sense of things? Do you think you love one style or mood and then see something else and love that too? I hear you. With a background in interior design and graphic design I absorb all things design, from interiors, objects, fashion, nature and beyond. It is an overload of visual stimulation. If you feel overwhelmed at the endless options, what do you do?
For me, I create design and lifestyle inspiration mood boards. And a lot of them! See my 5 steps below explaining how I create mine.
Lynette Melnyk - My Classic French Lifestyle Inspiration Board 1
Collect images, quotes, typefaces, patterns and objects (for 3D objects, I take photos of them so I have them in digital form). Pinterest is a wonderful source of inspiration, as well as magazines and retail stores that you love. I have so many photos from a lot of sources.
I pick one theme or idea, and only one at a time. If I don’t, I can literally freeze in my decision making process and go around in circles because I get distracted by the other themes or ideas.
The theme shown here comes from my Francophile passions with a neutral sophisticated color palette. The items don’t have to all be French, but they all honor my feelings about how I feel when I think about a certain theme. Nothing is wrong for you to choose because it is all about your likes and the things that support your feelings.
Then I sort through choices and put them on a page. I limit my choices to 7 to 12 images. I pull from different categories that resonate with me, such as interiors, patterns, paintings, colour swatches, typefaces, quotes, nature and fashion. You can add different categories that make your heart soar. I also have categories of music and dance that are special to me.
Finally, I have so much fun organizing them on the page, combining different values, sizes, shapes. The result is a balanced composition that sums up my passion for that theme.
This “Classic French Lifestyle Inspiration Board 1” theme is special to me as I adore France and am excited to collect more inspirations and ideas for my art. Stay tuned to see what transpires.