The year 2023 is almost upon us and, besties, it’s time to start planning. Whether you make New Year’s resolutions or not, you need to make yourself a digital mood board. Mood boards are casual, and anyone (no matter how artistic you are) can make one. The digital collages act as visual tools. You can use them to plan out — and feel out — what you want to happen in the new year. Plus, it can be a powerful manifestation technique.
Online vision boards allow you to easily switch between hundreds of fonts, color palettes, and images so you can best represent your future. It’s entirely up to you what they look like, and they can include whatever your heart desires, from that expensive face wash you’ve been thinking about to those elusive Eras Tour tickets you’ve been scouring the internet for. Or maybe you want a new beau or to develop an Insta-worthy style aesthetic.
(Not to mention, Yara Shahidi makes mood boards, and you know she’s got her life together. Now it’s your turn. Think WWYD: What would Yara do?)
It takes some pre-planning, but the magic of mood boards may sweep you off your feet and set you down in 2023 feeling prepared to face a new year. Well, as prepared as you can be for the next 365 days of chaotic college life.
If you don’t believe me, take it from an expert. “Creating a mood board yourself is a useful exercise in discovering your own priorities for the year,” says Karden Rabin, co-founder of Chronic Fatigue School (CFS). Rabin started CFS to teach and empower students from all over the world how to take back control of their health and their lives, and heal from chronic diseases caused by nervous system dysregulation, stress and trauma. “[Being] faced with the questions of what to include and what style to use forces you to confront what you seek to accomplish and how you want to improve this year,” she says.
And I promise, mood boards are not a thing of the past. Just because your mom used to sit down and cut up magazines to make one with her gal pals doesn’t mean you have to do it the same way.
Inez Stanway, owner of Live Laugh Create, one of the leading template and craft platforms on the web, has seen the practice carry over to the online world. “Meditation apps like Headspace have even created guided exercises in which people use their vision boards as part of calming breathing techniques to help them keep focused on their goals,” Stanway says.
Set some clear quartz and citrine on the desk next to your computer and open up some new tabs — it’s time to find what mood board maker you vibe with most.
No one can think about making a mood board and not pay homage to the OG: Pinterest. The site has everything you need when it comes to creativity and finding your own aesthetic. It doesn’t allow users to create organic collages, but offers an ocean of others’ photos and art to choose from. And, of course, you can upload your own art and photos as well. Pinterest lets you create as many boards as you need to capture as many ideas and dreams as you have.
Shuffles
Pinterest heard our cries and knew we wanted some more creative freedom. So, if you like a bit more artistic liberty, Shuffles is for you. The app, owned by Pinterest, offers you the same vast ocean of images to draw inspiration from, but now with the ability to pick apart the pictures. You can also cut out small borders or even use cut-outs of celebs in your collages. Luckily, the app has smart-tech features that do all the cutting-out and picking apart for you, so you just need to click on what you want and boom — killer mood board.
Canva
Canva comes with templates ready to go. The site has icons, photos, and art in the database for you to draw from and, of course, you can also upload your own images. Here’s where the fonts come into play — only Adobe has more fonts than Canva for your future vision board (but more on that below). Lines, shapes, graphics, frames, and gradients will come together to illuminate your year ahead. Canva even has audios that you can overlay on top of your images to enhance them. They just introduced a new feature that allows users to play around with videos as well. After Pinterest or Shuffles, trust me, your next stop should be Canva.
Adobe
Adobe is for the advanced girlies. Unlike the sites above, Adobe allows users to create an entirely original mood board using wholly their own art and design. Users can bring in photos from the internet, download their own fonts, and alter photos much more precisely than Shuffles. The Adobe Creative Suite comes with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Audition and Premiere. These are the most advanced editing tools people can use to create collages with audio and video incorporations. If you want to give this a try but you don’t know if you have the skills yet, Adobe also provides templates (and fonts) for those who need a little extra help!
What next?
Make a list of what you want to feel next year. Write down tangible goals and think of physical objects to represent them. This won’t all come to you overnight, so start brainstorming now. Getting all of those big ideas you’ve been meaning to tackle onto a page (digital or physical) can help.
Carly Costello, owner and therapist at The Counseling Nook, even uses vision boards in her practice to help improve her clients’ mental health. “When I do this with clients, I help them explore their ‘meaning of life’ or a ‘life motto’ and help them bring it to life on paper,” Costello says.
You might not feel like you’re ready to discover the meaning of life, but you’ve gotta start somewhere when you’re setting goals — and a digital board is where you can start.
Here are some topics you can think on if you’re having trouble finding a life motto:
- Professional life
- Financial goals
- A potential lover *wink*
- Mental and physical health
- Academic success
Once you know what you want, find images on your chosen website and get to collaging. The most important part of creating a mood board is making sure you don’t let it collect digital dust. Post it on Instagram. Make it your lock screen. Keep it at the center of your online presence.
A vision board can be a motivating yearly ritual, and once you find your niche collaging space on the internet you won’t be able to stop. Used properly, vision boards can be a map of your new year and help you coordinate what order you want to achieve goals in.
First, go out on the town and slay the holiday season. Then, recharge by sitting down with your laptop and some champagne and have a night in with the besties to plan out a top-notch 2023.