Exercise: Moodboards

Exercise: Moodboards

 Moodboards are used to document visual elements interconnected by a concept or theme. They are a good way of collecting visual information so that connections can be easily made. The word I chose was 'exotic', it was one of the words I completed the visual shorthand exercise for and I thought that the mooboard would be quite exciting and has so much visual potential. I started gathering a bunch of reference images, my dad would rather me not print out sheets and sheets of 'exotic' imagery, so instead, I created the moodboard on photoshop with digital images. I used my visual brainstorm for some inspiration for areas to explore. I think that exotic is an adjective for so many things, I found images on...

Exotic...

  • Cars
  • Animals
  • Plants
  • Fruit
  • Fashion
  • Insects
  • Places
From my research there was already a large number of common threads, everything was colourful, vibrant and out of the ordinary. When you look at what exotic things nature is responsible for that is very apparent, everything man made such as cars and fashion has taken inspiration from the exotic flora and fauna the world has to offer. Leopard print swimming costumes and snakeskin bags are all directly taken from nature, then you have things that are less obvious, exotic cars have their name because of their rarity and expense which is a quality of exotic plants and animals which tend to be rare and found in specific places. Exotic cars also have unique shapes when compared to regular cars, many exotic animals and especially flowers are wonderous and exciting things to look at, rather look exotic cars. 

I decided that I was going to draw a little just to get some of my own illustrations into the moodboard. I drew out a parrot and dragon fruit in my sketchbook, I then inked them and loaded them into photoshop as well.

The research files
My own illustrations of a parrot and dragon fruit
My final moodboard
In my opinion at first glance of the moodboard it is striking. I think that is what the first reaction to anything exotic should be, it should have a wow factor and I think this moodboard captures that through colour. I have explored a wide variety of exotic elements to ensure there is a large range of ideas if I was to refer back to it in the future. I've made a conscious effort to arrange the images in a way thats organised. All the exotic animals are placed with each other, then it flows into textures and then into human creations such as cars and fashion and then into flowers and fruit. 




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