Anatomy of a Vision Board

For the past two years, I’ve done this thing at the end of the year called Holiday Council where I reflect on the past year and plan for the new one, and part of the process is creating a vision board for the upcoming year.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to break down this vision board’s design decisions. Nothing on the board is random. It’s designed on purpose. I won’t get into the specifics of my word of the year (radiate) or my “ways of being” (the words at the bottom). That’s for another post. This post is specifically to talk about the design decisions I made and how they support and communicate my vision.

IMAGE SOURCES FROM TOP LEFT: Twine & Twig, Unknown, Me/My Art, Me/My Jewelry Design, Urban Outfitters, Shannon Howard Prints

SONG LYRICS: [Enneagram)] Seven by Sleeping at Last

1 - The word "Radiate" connects to the final "I am the sun" phrase, so the viewer starts by seeing “radiate” and ends with seeing “I am the sun,” creating a nice bookend effect for the design.

2 - Lyrics to the song [Enneagram Type] Seven by Sleeping at Last sit in the background. As an Enneagram Type 7, I found this song to be so meaningful and on target. It also speaks to the plans I have for the year and how I want to be and live.

3 - This picture is from Twine & Twig - I admire this company's style, products, and how they've built a community for their employees as well as a very specific design aesthetic. They are connected and rooted. I love it!

4 - These are my jewelry designs. I want to continue to pursue this type of project (i.e., "nurture creativity") in 2020.

5 - There are three people in my nuclear family. These squares represent us.

6 - This is my artwork - another area I intend to work on this year.

7 - The specific lyrics “but I want to be here, truly be here, to watch the ones that I love bloom. And I want to make room, to love them through and through and through, through the slow and barren seasons, too.” appear directly underneath the phrase “embrace hygge,” which is a very fitting way to attempt to do that.

8 - The last lines of the song "and I'm ready, god, i'm ready , oh I'm ready for whatever comes next" lead directly to my ways of being at the bottom of the page. Those ways of being are basically my guiding principles for the year.

9 - The words "I am" are large to encompass the other "ways of being"; the color is the same as "the sun" to connect it directly to that as a phrase.

Additional images

The three other images that I didn’t address above still directly connect to the meaning and symbolism of the words.

Beach bonfire - Obviously, the clear connection here is to “ignited” because…fire. But it also represents a feeling of being rooted - a cozy beach bonfire with the important people in life, feeling connected.

The ocean - The ocean is both steadfast and unwavering in the predictability of its waves and tides; conversely, it’s spirited and restless with endless energy. The ocean also represents connection to me - with nature and with myself.

Cozy couch - Home is where the roots are. It’s where the central core of life happens. That’s what this picture represents.

Color palette

Normally, I’m drawn to bright clear color palettes in design, but those didn’t feel right for this vision board. I wanted something that felt…deeper. So I dialed it back and used a muted, earthy palette with golds and rusts. The background color also isn’t bright white (it’s a very pale gray - #f6f6f6 for all you color nerds out there).

Typography

I wanted to bring both a level of quiet sophistication and a handmade touch to the typography, so I chose to mix a serif font with a handwriting font. Had I done this on an iPad with Procreate or something, I’d have written it out myself. But I didn’t, so I use a font. The tool I used to create the moodboard itself was Sketch, in case you’re curious, but could have just as easily used Photoshop, Illustrator, or even Canva.

I do have an alternate view of the vision board that I created specifically for the background on my desktop (and I had it printed on a mug). The same design decisions above remain, with the exception of the song lyric placement. It just didn’t work to put the lyrics behind “embrace hygge.”

I also added one more image, which is a picture of me holding beads. Beads represent jewelry design and crafting, as well as creating connectivity by bringing them together in a finished project.