The piece announces that The Real Objects studio is starting a reflection series on their design process, choosing the moodboard as the first topic. A moodboard is described as a visual collage that captures still-forming ideas and emotions. The author admits to misusing moodboards as a student — treating them as an afterthought tacked onto the end of a presentation rather than a core part of the process — and believes this was part of why no standout project emerged during those years. The intro closes by linking to the moment the writer truly grasped the value of moodboards, during a rustic built-in oven project taken on right after graduation.

How we turned Opine's early-stage idea for a filtered shower head into a clear design direction, from concept development to CMF, and what the client actually gained from the process.