Actually...I know they would. If you opened one halfway through, you'd probably think I'd completely lost it. Screenshots everywhere. Fashion editorials. A random coffee shop. A close-up of a rusted metal wall. Some lighting reference. A portrait. Then somehow...a landscape. Nothing really makes sense. At least not yet. My creative team used to joke that it looked like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. Just absolute chaos. They weren't wrong.

The funny thing is it usually starts with one idea. Then I start looking. Somewhere along the way I completely forget what I was originally looking for. I'll start searching for a fashion campaign, then three hours later I'm looking at some tiny coffee shop in Copenhagen because the color of the walls feels right. Or the light. Or the texture. I honestly don't always know what I'm looking for until I see it. I think that's why I love building reference boards. They aren't there to explain the idea. They're there to help me find it.

Sometimes I'll start with a really clear direction in my head. Then I build the board and somewhere in the middle I realize..."Actually...I don't think that's it anymore." The board changes my mind. I don't really fight that anymore. I almost expect it now. There was one shoot where we had this single lighting reference buried somewhere in the board. It wasn't even a big talking point before the shoot. Then we got on set. Styling came together. Hair and makeup came together. We started playing with the lights, and somehow that one reference became the creative direction for the entire day. Shot after shot we kept pushing it further. None of us expected that walking in.

That's why I don't think reference boards are shot lists. They're conversations. I never want someone looking at one of my boards thinking we're going to recreate Image #14. If that's the goal, we've already failed. I'd much rather someone walk away understanding the feeling. The tension. The color palette. The energy. The world we're trying to build. Everything else should happen on set.

I think that's also why my boards look so chaotic. I'm not organizing ideas. I'm collecting possibilities. Some of them have nothing to do with the subject we're shooting. It might just be the lighting. Or a texture. Or the way a shadow falls across someone's face. Sometimes none of it makes sense together. Until it does. That's when I start pulling things away, grouping ideas together, finding patterns. The mess slowly turns into a direction.

Maybe that's why I never show people the first version. Working creatives understand they're looking at thinking in progress. Everyone else just sees chaos.

Honestly...

They're both right.

My boards probably do look like a mess.

Trust the process.