A CHAT WITH LISA COUSENS

THE BUSINESS OF CREATING MOOD BOARDS

Old school designers relied heavily on magazine cuttings and fabric samples to make mood boards for their designs.  Sourcing suppliers and obtaining products was a laborious task with a lot of time often spent in the car driving from place to place.

These days, there is so much available online that coming up with a design concept is easily accessible for designers and hobbyists alike.  But even with the world at our fingertips, it can be difficult to collate ideas together to really get a feel for what a room is going to look like once it’s furnished.  If only there was a free platform that allowed you to drag and drop all your favourite products into one simple online mood board.  Good news friends.  It exists!

If you haven’t already joined the thousands of other people using Style Sourcebook, then you’re going to want to straight after this episode.  Today we chat to Lisa Cousens, the creator of Style Sourcebook, an online mood board platform which enables users to source and style products from different designers to really see their ideas take shape.  The site also facilitates community in such a way that clients can find a designer, designers can share their ideas and users can find inspiration from seeing what other people have come up with.

Working in the business and marketing sector, Lisa always had a love for renovating and the desire to eventually start her own business.  Driven by her own frustration in the renovation design process, Lisa’s idea for a drag and drop mood board site took shape.  With a focus on making the site intuitive and enjoyable for users, Lisa spent a year planning the site and liaising with designers and retailers before launching her unique idea.  Lisa talks about her process of developing the site and how it has now evolved into a mood board community.

With no interior design experience, Lisa created a brilliant platform to create designs, share ideas and connect with likeminded people.  Connection and community always play such a big role in design projects, and Style Sourcebook is not only an excellent (and FREE) design tool but a way in which people can connect with each other throughout the creative process.  Go sign up today and share your ideas on Instagram.  We’d love to see them!

If you have a topic or question you’d like us to cover, contact us here.

SOME TOPICS THAT WE COVER:

  • [1:28]: What is Style Sourcebook and how it streamlines visual planning for design
  • [3:44]: Lisa’s background managing teams in online publishing and how she came to start her own business
  • [4:30]: The focus on making Style Sourcebook easy, enjoyable and intuitive
  • [6:00]: Collating two different looks on Style Sourcebook to compare and help make decisions
  • [7:50]: How Lisa went about getting designers on board and the process of developing the site
  • [9:05]: Lisa’s business experience and how it provided the experience to launch Style Sourcebook
  • [10:30]: How Style Sourcebook involved into a mood board community by getting feedback from users
  • [11:30]: How the platform enables suppliers and customers to interact without having to see products in person
  • [12:30]: Style Sourcebook is a free tool which helps designers and clients alike
  • [13:15]: Achieving 17,000 users after only 3 years and how Lisa is so pleased with the Instagram community which also helps retailers and suppliers
  • [15:00]: The range of products available on the platform and how it incorporates pricing, enabling users to calculate the total price of their design idea
  • [15:43]: Lisa talks about further ideas on how to expand Style Sourcebook’s functionality

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

We have several Facebook Groups at BuildHer Collective.

MEMBER ONLY FACEBOOK GROUPS

BHC DevelopHers Circle and BuildHer Collective Members Only – these are closed groups for women who are doing our Build Like a BuildHer course or who have joined our DevelopHers Inner Circle.

FREE FACEBOOK GROUP – Join Us!

Anyone is more than welcome to join our Women who Design, Decorate, Renovate & Build group. You will note that it’s a closed group but ask to join and if you’re into building and renovating, this is such an amazing and supportive FREE community, so come on and join in the building goodness!