Imagine it’s the new year and you have a long list of resolutions: you want to meditate every day, have a consistent skin care routine, take vitamins, and eat healthier—but how do you remind yourself to do these things in a fun way?

The answer is to make a moodboard.

At the beginning of this year, I started moodboarding. I printed out images that depicted the vibe I wanted for the start of the year. The inspiration consisted of skincare, people doing yoga, self-care products, and outfit inspiration. I designed a heading that said “Winter 2024,” stuck it in the middle of the collage of photos, and hung it next to my calendar.

In this way, before I left my room every day I would be reminded of my goals and resolutions for the new year.

But New Year’s resolutions aren’t the only reason to make a mood board. You can make a moodboard to capture the feeling of a movie/TV show, to gather inspiration for a creative project, to just make a collage of things you like, and so much more.

So to explain how to moodboard, I’m going to show you step by step how I make a moodboard (with the help of the ECHO) . . .

Find inspiration:

This is the heart and soul of your moodboard. To find inspiration, you might go to the internet and use Pinterest (my holy grail) or Google. If you’re feeling adventurous, however, you can even scour old magazines and newspapers to get a true physical media experience. Once you’ve gathered all of the photos you want to put in your moodboard, select your faves and move onto the next step.

Put them together:

This step is pretty self-explanatory, but I would argue that it’s more crucial than one might think. While making a Pinterest board is like a moodboard, actually overlapping and making one image of the mood or vibe you’re trying to create is more beneficial than scrolling through a Pinterest board seeing only a few images at a time. So, whether you want to print the images, cut them out, and stick them together with some Elmer’s glue (which is my preference), not everyone has the time or access to a printer. So there’s always the option to make it on your phone or iPad with any collaging website—even Pinterest has a feature called Pinterest shuffles to do this very thing.

Add your personal touch:

While you can skip this step, I think adding your own personal flare to your moodboard makes it cohesive and less like you just took a bunch of unrelated photos and stuck them together. So to add your own content, you can design a heading with traditional art supplies, write affirmations on the board, make your own doodles on the board, etc.

Hang it where you’ll see it:

Once your moody masterpiece is finished, put it somewhere you will see it every day. Whether that place is your phone’s home screen, your bedroom wall, your gym locker, or even at your job, make sure it serves as a daily reminder to your goals, inspirations, and interests.

While few of you reading this will actually make a moodboard I hope I got the message across that being creative with your goals, aspirations, and inspirations makes them all the more memorable and just plain old fun. So, if this article has inspired you, make that moodboard!