In the Mood for Design
I love mood boards.
I use them as a basis for all kinds of creative projects, from my own graphic and interactive design work, to designing rooms in the house, to planning events.

My methods vary from pasting paper clippings to a large piece of foam core to pasting digital images I find into a Photoshop document.

This new tool I have just read about is a good addition to one of our previous posts, DIY Gets Digital. It is called Olioboard, an online mood board creation tool. I am really looking forward to testing it out (and I really wish I invented it myself).




It pulls images of available products from a variety of sites like Care and Barrel and YLiving. That is key. There is the "inspiration-style mood board" that is more abstract and subjective. Then there is what I like to call the "spec mood board." It consists of more concrete information such as currently available retail products that the average consumer can locate and budget for.

An example of one of the many ways to find items:


Some completed mood board examples from the Olioboard community:

About Us


Christopher Scott and Jodi Vautrin are the husband and wife team behind Ourhaus, where they chronicle their adventures in home improvement, decorating and travel. After purchasing a unique loft space just a few miles north of Boston, they began photographing and writing about their projects and it blossomed into a creative outlet and platform.

When they’re not home improving, Jodi spends her days as a freelance creative director & designer with a focus on user interface and interactive design, and is an entrepreneur at heart. She serves on the board of AIGA Boston as Vice President of Emerging Ideas & Events.

In his professional life, Christopher is the Technology Director for a multi-service ad agency based in Harvard Square. In his private life, he enjoys tinkering in all its forms, whether it's rebuilding the Ourhaus home network (again), fooling himself into thinking he knows how to fix home appliances, or trying to unravel the mysteries of the guitar. He also flies planes, performs open heart surgery and sings at bar mitzvahs (though not all at the same time).

They share their “haus” with their adorable, highly food-motivated chocolate lab, Lucy.