Creating moodboards with digital tools: a new educational approach

The paper presents methodologies and first results of an educational experimentation (Brevi, Celi, & Gaetani, 2018) held at the Bachelor of Science in Product Design programme of Politecnico di Milano. In order to build a body of knowledge for Design freshmen, the experience had the aim of matching basic skills developed at the first year with the need of an autonomous approach required at the second year from Metadesign Studio throughout the tools for creating moodboards: a collection of images, colors and texture with the aim of representing emotions, feelings or ‘moods’, suggested by the design research. Moodboards have an important function in developing students’ ability to articulate their thinking. The enacted experimentation had the aim to present and test some practical tool for moodboards development. During the Methods and Instruments for Design course these skills have been developed through targeted exercises of awareness and techniques of photographic processing. To enable students to act in a more conscious way the educational approach has provided lessons with practical visual examples, a selection of on-line materials and step by step guide with suggestions.