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Visual Reference Building

Collecting visual examples and naming the specific quality to borrow from each one.

What is Visual Reference Building?

Collecting visual examples and naming the specific quality to borrow from each one.

What you learn

Take one specific quality from a reference, not its whole look.

When it helps

you have a visual brief and need to turn references into specific choices about space, hierarchy or rhythm.

Use it at work

  1. Collect references for the brief.
  2. Under each, name one specific quality to borrow.
  3. Write why that quality fits the brief.
  4. Drop references that only offer a general mood.

Your output

For each reference on your next board, write the one quality you’re taking from it and how it will change your design.

Watch for

Copying the surface style of a reference.

Related practices

Sources

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