How to Create a Mood Board or Product Roundup
If you have followed my blog or social media account for any amount of time you’ll notice I often share mood boards and rounds up of items and I seem to get asked what program I am using almost every time. I had lots of direct messages and comments when I took this poll for our nursery mood board so I thought I’d just do a quick post with the details!
As a former graphic designer I use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop for pretty much everything. I will do anything to avoid using Microsoft Word! My preferred software is definitely InDesign with the help of Photoshop. Not only are these tools great for creating or editing any photos, graphics or text images you may need for your blog, store, etc., they are great for creating design visuals.
I am such a visual person that I have a hard time committing to something without seeing it first. That’s where these mood boards or room renderings can come in handy! Just seeing all of the items together can really help determine what items complement each other and what don’t. Here is how I chose all of the items just for the nursery, by just adding products in the file and seeing them grouped. It was easy to tell when I style of item didn’t fit the theme which is always great! For me eliminating options is always a step in the right direction!
If I am really considering an item I will often use Adobe Photoshop to photoshop the item in the space to see what I think. This can be using the online image from the website or a photo taken from your phone. I have found these helpful multiple times because it helps choose the right item and prevents lots of heartache, returns or unnecessary holes in the wall.
Here is how I narrowed down my dining room rug. You can tell the table is floating a bit but it was close enough to help make my decision.
Photoshop vs. Reality
I also had found this ottoman on sale at a local shop and snapped pictures of it and came home to think about it. I previously didn’t have an ottoman and this one had the perfect color palette and was a steal at $30!
Photoshop vs. Reality
I use InDesign when I’m doing roundups of some of my favorite items! I’ll find the items online and use those images to create these image roundups. I occasionally will have to use Photoshop to cut out the item from the background to create the cleaner look like you see below.
For me this software is easy to use (since I’ve been using it since college) and makes my life so much easier! Adobe offers a Creative Cloud that you can pay per month, per year, etc. It not only gives you access to InDesign and Photoshop but also Illustrator, Lightroom and several other awesome creative programs that you may find helpful. You can also select just to pay for InDesign and/or Photoshop instead of the full Adobe offering. So if you are a blogger, shop owner or designer…I highly recommend checking them out even if it’s just for a month or two to see if you like it!
I know this is outside of my normal blog content but I hope you found this helpful!
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