These images set an overall feel for the project and are utilized as a creative source of inspiration or the exploration of project/product ideas (Cassidy 2008).

Overall, creativity assessment in apparel and textile research is relatively limited, yet few researchers dispute the importance of creativity in the domain.Ĭonceptual mood boards are typically non-product specific and include a range of images creatively representing a theme or idea. Research examining the evaluation of mood boards, namely creativity and expression of thematic elements, is lacking, perhaps because of the subjective nature often present when representing through visual means a feeling or idea (McDonagh and Storer 2004). Mood boards cover a wide range of visual representations from concept boards to sales boards, each having a specific use: from inspiration for designers to product communication for merchandisers. Using color, texture, image, form, and sometimes objects, mood boards bring to visual life a feeling or sentiment (Garner and McDonagh-Philp 2001). Overall, expert and non-expert raters reported significant reliability, which further supports prior research using consensual assessment for creativity measures across domains.įashion mood boards are fundamental tools in design and merchandising fields. ANOVA results for all raters indicated a significant difference between the five subject matter categories F (4, 95) = 4.64, p < .005. Independent samples t test comparing group means indicated expert raters evaluated the mood boards significantly higher in creativity than the non-experts, t (99) = −6.71, p < .001, (95% CI −.57, −.29), while Pearson correlation results indicate a significant relationship between the two groups of raters, r (50) = .33, p < .01. Creativity measures were compared with the mood board themes to further investigate any relationships between mood board types and the consensual assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to examine reliability of a digital consensual assessment instrument measuring creativity, using expert (from related domains) and non-expert raters (students). However objectively evaluating the creativity of fashion design mood boards is often difficult.

Mood boards are used frequently in design and product development as well as in academic courses related to fashion design.

Fashion design mood board