Deidaa imparts learning about fashion and costume design on Learn with Samita, Deidaa's YouTube channel. We are talking about mood boards and storyboards with Jennifer Georges, fashion designer and founder, Jenev.
Moodboards and Storyboards: Relevance and Use
Samita: Jennifer, what do you think about mood boards and storyboards? Did you use mood boards and storyboards for designing your current collection? How did you go about it? Do you think mood boards and storyboards are useful?
Jennifer: We began using them at the design school. They help frame your collection. I start with a concept or a theme or an idea of a range or collection that I want to work with. I create a storyboard and a mood board. The mood board will set the tone and the mood of where we want it to go. The storyboards help to define the separate aspects.
For this collection I have the theme Inanna rising. Inanna is an ancient Sumerian goddess. The theme is around goddesses and powerful women. My culture is Chaldean from Iraq. I am Middle Eastern. In my heritage, if you look back at ancient Mesopotamia and even further back into the ancient Sumerian civilization, they had their own pantheon. They had several gods and goddesses. Inanna was one of the main goddesses. She was the goddess of love, power and war. We used her as the main inspiration for the collection.
We took the idea of this goddess, the strength, comfort and security she gave to her followers. We used these concepts as themes for the collection. For the storyboard I took a few of the ancient sculptures, images, vases. I used the shapes, color and tone for silhouettes.
I would visualize what the goddesses would be wearing, and develop further from there. The storyboards give you direction. If you lose track you can go back and reground yourself to the theme of the collection. I like to add in the storyboards the customer I'm designing for. This collection is about women of the past meeting the women of today. I connected the two and used the inspiration to design for the woman of today. The idea was to help her feel empowered through her clothing. I try and find an image of a woman that will resonate with my customer. I put the image on the storyboard. I take the main colors from the collection. I add a few silhouettes.
Samita: You said that the mood board sets the tone. That is exactly what a mood board should do. It gives a broad overview, a sense of direction. With the storyboard your collection becomes more defined.
You talked about your your heritage. How you derive from the the religious icons. This kind of imagery is intrinsic to the Sumerian and Egyptians cultures and the Indus Valley civilization. Ancient civilizations rely on religous iconography and imagery. The storyboard defines a collection, it does not straightjacket the collection. Changes can be made within the storyboard, while you are making the collection.
A good storyboard is like the foundation of a firm building. If you have a good storyboard, you can create a resolved collection.
For a student, a storyboard is important from the point of view of student presentation. If you go for a job interview, you have to show the progression of an of an idea from concept to fruition. Once you are in the industry you use a storyboard to pre-book orders on the basis of storyboards
Must-Haves on Story Boards
What are the must-haves on storyboards? What helps your client or your examiner get a fair idea of what you are trying to convey?
Jennifer: The storyboard shows the inspiration and the reasoning behind the collection. Have two-three core images of your inspiration. I like to put the colors. If there are any prints, put the prints. I like to put the customer in there. It helps the buyer visualize exactly who is going to wear it. Put a few silhouettes, if you have any pictures or sketches of what you are creating.
Samita: I like the fact that you mentioned the customer. If you put up a customer profile, the person sitting in front of you can connect their own customer with the customer on your storyboard. If they feel this customer looks like my customer, I will be able to sell these clothes to my clients they place an order.
Mindblowing Storyboards
Any tips for a mind-blowing storyboard. What is your trade secret that you may want to share with Deidaa's clients?
I will take long to find the core image that gets to the heart of your theme. Make the image large on the board. Center everything around it. Add some focussed text and a heading. The main image is important. Find a good customer image. A person can straightaway you look at it and see the woman.
Samita: Do genuine research. Do not bump off the first picture that you land on the internet. Be careful about copyrights. Make the work as original as possible.
Where can members of Deidaaratti, Deidaa Mail Club, buy your fabulous clothes
Jennifer: You can shop on our website, shopjenev.com
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