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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Nottingham chapter.

Mood Boards or Vision Boards have become increasingly popular. They immensely help in maintaining motivation, or for setting and reaching those goals. Personally, mood boards and vision boards have allowed me to visually dream and, in a way, allow me to express myself.

So how can you use mood boards or vision boards for yourself? Well


Being that Fashionista 

Lately, this has been a favourite of mine. Clothes can show our personality, however, there is no harm in wanting to be influenced by fashion icons and models. With fashion, it is best to not confine yourself, since it can be considered as an art. 

‘New Year, New Me.’ – Goals and Manifestations

This is a commonly used reason for making a mood board. Before January 1st, try and think of many goals or aspirations for the coming year. It could be that you want to be at the gym more, improve your makeup game, or visit more countries. Furthermore, they are great when you reflect on the year and see what you have achieved. 

Projects

Learning a new skill or marketing a campaign? Vision boards are an amazing way to visualise your project coming to life. For learning a skill, you can create a vision board on the techniques past people have used, or the products they have made (manual skills, mainly). For marketing, it is a great way to gain inspiration from digital creators about certain graphics that you can use in a poster or a label.

Inspiration

I love making mood boards for a new braided hairstyle that I would love to try out, or the next set of acrylic/gel/BIAB nails to do. The variety and amount of inspiration is so vast! There are ideas that not even I can think of from the top of my head, seeing all these ideas makes me fall in love with the stances of creativity so many people have.

Feeling inspired? Here’s a mini guide on how to tackle your first mood board


  1. Go onto Pinterest (or Canva) and make a board with the title that you want. If you want to, you can make this board private!
  2. Think of the main qualities – for fashion, you could search for a nice, cute streetwear outfit featuring Nike Shox and baggy jeans. If you don’t want to stay in the streetwear category, that’s fine too! The aim is to make it personal to you, so just cater your search terms accordingly!
  3. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be aesthetic pictures added, positive affirmations can be added too! Focus on being inspired over the aesthetic!
  4. Watch how your online mood board grows! If you aim to stay motivated then you might want to bring it to life by printing out the pictures and sticking them onto a large piece of card, or on your walls! If you make a board with your goals for the year it’s so interesting to look back on at the end, seeing what you achieved and how far you’ve grown from when you made it – it can help put things into perspective.
  5. Don’t put pressure on yourself for your mood board to come all at once, I promise that results come slowly and with action! It’s better to take your time and make it meaningful rather than rushing it!
Fidji Gomis-Mendy

Nottingham '24

3rd Year International Media and Communication Studies student at the University of Nottingham.