If you look up mooding in a dictionary, you will come up empty. If you Google it, you will find a bunch of German sites with technical specs. The reason is basically because mooding is not a word. Not yet at least.
Today when working on a design for this blog, I was wondering what to write as a generic text. Suddenly the word mooding dropped into my mind. The word moods has been used by several designers, and especially known up north from the designers of Moods of Norway.
Now, the word Mood – as described in Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary – is a conscious state of mind or predominant emotion : feeling; also : the expression of mood especially in art or literature.
Now how does this apply to design (yes you probably already get it, but I brought my teaspoon)?
When working on a design, you are trying to create a feeling. The recipient of a design should respond in some way. What the response should be is entirely dependent on what you are designing, but an emotion must be triggered on some level for a design to be successful.
So what is mooding?
I would not say designing something is mooding, however, when you are working on conceptual design, you are mooding. If you have a customer that has no idea what he wants, no idea what content he should have, and basically doesn’t see why he should have it, you design a couple of sketches. You send over some amazingly attractive design, and he instantly gets into the mood of working with you. When you create a picture in Photoshop just to work on your skills, and post it to your blog for no other reason than to inspire others, you are mooding. When you create a sketchbook of pictures and/or designs to show friends, prospects and clients what your focus and skills are, you are mooding.
So there you have it, mooding is now a new word in my dictionary, and if Merriam Websters ever pick it up, it would state something like: creating a visual experience without context or profound artistic meaning, to set a mood; inspire;
Mooding, you heard it first from me, and if it catches on I want my name in the dictionaries. Try using it a bit, and see if it rolls of the tongue as it should. Then let me know how it works out!
In the spirit of mooding, I worked up a mood today inspired by the works of Abduzeedo and Shinybinary.
Hope it moods you!
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