A palette with a purpose

Give the board a job

A folder full of attractive pictures can make a project harder. One reference suggests bright colours, another a quiet page, a third a completely different audience. Before collecting anything else, decide what your mood board must help you choose.

Use a small fictional brief: an invitation to a neighbourhood book swap. It should feel welcoming, be easy to read and carry the date, venue and participation instructions. Write those needs above your working area. They are your filter for every reference you add.

A mood board is useful when it narrows choices. If it becomes a collection of everything you like, split it into competing directions and choose one before you start building the invitation.

Collect for different reasons

Find a handful of references with distinct roles. One might show a colour relationship, another a way of grouping text, another a photographic mood. Record the reason beside each image. “I like this” is a starting point; “the dark title remains clear against a pale background” is something you can test.

Do not take an entire reference design as a recipe. Separate the useful decision from its original expression. You might learn from generous spacing without copying the typeface, illustration, wording and layout together.

Keep the original source and licence information with anything you collect. A private reference is not automatically an asset you can publish. If you intend to use a photograph in the finished invitation, check that intended use separately.

Choose roles before colours

For the first version, pick a background, a main text colour and an accent. Naming their roles prevents you from treating every swatch as equally prominent. You can add more colours later if the content genuinely needs them.

Apply the palette to actual words, not just a row of squares. A pairing that looks elegant as a large swatch may be uncomfortable for a paragraph. Your headline, practical details and action give you a more useful test surface.

For this exercise, let the accent carry one repeated function, such as the action. If every heading, date and illustration uses it differently, the reader has to relearn its meaning across the page.

Make two real versions

Build two versions of the same invitation. Keep the wording, sizes and spacing fixed, and change only the palette. This gives you a fairer comparison than changing colour and layout together.

Ask which version makes the practical details easier to find. Then ask what kind of event each one suggests. The answers may disagree: a vivid option could communicate energy while a quieter one makes long details easier to read. Revisit the brief instead of choosing only by personal preference.

If the two palettes appear to work equally well, use the one you can apply consistently across the next item you need to make. A useful system survives a different photograph, a longer title and an extra line of practical information.

Check readable contrast

For digital text, test the exact foreground and background colours with a contrast checker. WCAG specifies a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for ordinary text and 3:1 for large text at Level AA, with defined exceptions. Treat these as a measurable starting point, then inspect the actual size, weight and viewing conditions.

Do not assume a bold heading qualifies as large text. WCAG uses specific size definitions. A checker that lets you select normal or large text can help, but the choice must match the typography you actually publish.

A coloured label also needs wording. If orange means “fully booked” and grey means “places available”, write those states in text too. Colour should reinforce the message rather than become the only way to understand it.

Turn it into a small system

Keep a simple note of your choices: background colour, main text colour, accent colour and where the accent belongs. Add the source of any visual asset you plan to use. This note should let you recreate the design without guessing.

Now make a second item, such as a reminder image. Reuse the colour roles but adapt the layout to the new content. A reminder may need the date to lead because the audience already knows the event. Consistency does not mean every item has to be identical.

When something fails, describe the failure precisely. “The pale text is hard to read over the photo” leads to an adjustment. “The colours feel wrong” leaves you with too many possibilities and no clear test.

Keep only useful references

Finish by removing references that no longer explain a decision in your design. You should be able to point from a remaining image to a choice you made: this spacing, that colour relationship, this kind of crop. The board has become a record of your thinking.

Use the course to resolve one colour decision

Your invitation now gives the next lesson a practical purpose. If the references still pull the design in different directions, study the mood-board topic in Canva’s Graphic design essentials, then return to the board and justify every image you keep. If the direction is settled but the palette is difficult to use, study the colour topic with both invitation versions beside you.

Afterwards, revise one colour role on the same draft. Perhaps the accent belongs only on the action, or a darker main text colour makes the details easier to read. Keep the layout fixed, check the contrast again and compare the result with the earlier version. The course offers foundations to study; this comparison shows how you are applying them.

Canva lists 10 lessons and 53 minutes for the full course, which also covers elements, principles and typography. The book-swap invitation is our independent practice brief, and the accessibility checks above come from W3C guidance. Open the course programme to choose the topic that addresses the decision you have not yet resolved.

References: Canva’s course listing; W3C, Understanding minimum contrast; W3C, Understanding use of colour. Exercises and examples are Carmavi’s own.