Moodboarding, design intent and sketching

Creating a Design Direction

Every project begins with establishing your design intent, and this means gathering conceptual imagery that inspires you. It doesn't necessarily need to be an image of an interior; it can be anything that conveys the pattern, texture and form you want to include in a room.

This becomes your design direction and is something you should continue to refer back to throughout the process.

You can pull these types of images from many different places.

• Pinterest and Instagram great sources of inspirational images.
• Galleries of images from brands and suppliers you like.
• Capture images from nature while you're out an about.

As with all our projects, we began by establishing a strong sense of design direction. I'll show you my process for doing so and where to start when creating your own.

For the WOW!house room, I included images showcasing:

• low-level lighting to convey the mood and atmosphere
• a mix of lacquered and matt surfaces
• lots of patterns and glass elements.

To create this board of images, you can use Photoshop, InDesign or Canva.

Creating an Artist Sketch

Once we finalised our design and chosen collaborators for the project, we enlisted the help of an artist to create a sketch of the space. This is a great way to understand how the final room will look.

Sourcebook

• Artist: Tanatswa Borerwe