I’m curious – what’s the first thing you do when you get an idea?

Are you the person who calls your best friend to immediately word vomit your brilliance?

Do you map it out in a Google Doc to get the lay of the land?

Or do you let it roll around in your head for a minute to make sure it’s actually a good idea before telling anyone?

I have done all of those things at various times in my life. I used to call my duo partner, Olivia, the literal second I had an idea for anything and was always disappointed whenever she didn’t pick up. So I moved onto mapping it out in a document, just to see if I had a handle on it. And then, several years later, I finally started letting it rest in my brain before doing anything with it.

It’s still difficult for me, lol. But, I find that the more I let things marinate, the better it gets.

And, I’ve started to encourage myself to visually see what’s going on in my mind with a good ol’ fashioned mood board.

How does one mood board?

Just follow these handy dandy steps and grab my even handier dandier mood board templates available in the Think Tank Resource Library!

How to Mood Board Your Inspired Idea:

Step 1: Envision how you want this idea/project to feel or look. Journal about it or close your eyes and see it all come to fruition.

Step 2: Choose a few keywords that describe your vision. 5-8 is a good number.

Step 3: Put on some tunes & find imagery that matches the vibe you’re going for. Favorite places to source imagey from are Unsplash, Pexels, Pinterest (if you’re making it for personal use). I also have playlists for vibing out with your mood board – find me on Spotify!

Step 4: Choose a board style from my free Canva templates, or create your own, and drop images into each frame! Note: there are currently placeholder images in each mood board template, but just drop your new image on top!

Step 5 (optional): Share on social media and tag me, puhleeese!

Some hot tips for sourcing imagery:

• Search “around” your keywords. think of specific objects or environments that might elicit the feeling and search for those

• Your board will feel cohesive and therefore more powerful if you hang out in a particular color family or style. Choose one or two images to get you going and then notice what types of colors/photography styles you gravitate towards.

A few mood boards to get your ideas cookin’:

Grab this and other mood board templates via the Think Tank Resource Library!