When starting a new design project, it is very important to create a clear style guide that you and your team can follow throughout the design phase. To do this, people in the design industry often use a tool called mood boards.  A mood board is a collage of images that help people generate design ideas by allowing them to communicate their thoughts while defining a visual style guide.  This method is very useful in helping to create a cohesive design, especially when working with a large group of people who have various style preferences.

To make a mood board, you can use one of two methods.  You can either make a digital version, using photoshop (or any other image editor), or you can create something that is more tangible by printing off your inspirational images.  Once you decide on your preferred method, neither is better than the other, start collecting a wide range of images that inspire, excite, and catch your eye; these can be things like fonts, logos, colour schemes, photos, and or shapes.  Once you have collected all of your images, put them together in your mood board and start organizing them into similar groups.  After you have organized your images, take a step back and a look at what you have gathered.  Naturally, by seeing all of your design ideas together, in one spot, you will be able to point out what design elements work and what design elements don’t work, as catching these inconsistencies will be a lot easier.  After filtering out the items that don’t belong with your overall vision, you will be left with a mood board that will display a clear & concise look and feel, that will point your project towards design success.