Inside the profession: references and mood boards

03 September 2020 y.

It's time to get closer to your future profession! We have already told you about different professions, shared many life hacks and techniques streamline your success. Now, we'd like to tell you about the internal processes: how games, cool logos, and texts are created, what references mean, and where to get inspiration. Let's start with the designers, and talk about references and mood boards.    

What are references and moodboards?

References are pictures, photos, or videos that show the author's idea. They include pictures with complying color composition, a way of arranging elements, a character's pose. The essential thing is to determine what exactly you like in the picture, why, and how you will use it. References are not a copy of someone else's work, they are the basis on which you create something new. Mood boards are a collection of related references that are placed on one board. Mood boards actually create the mood of future work.

What are references for?

You need references:

• If you don't know what to draw, shoot, or write
• If you don't know how to visualize the topic
• If you want the whole team and the customer to understand what exactly will be created
• If you don't want to lose the main idea in the process
• For a complete picture

Where to look for references?

Look for references on Pinterest, Behance, Tumblr, creative agencies' Instagram profiles.