Every project I take on starts with a question rather than a picture. Before a single reference is pinned, I try to name the feeling the work should leave behind. That sentence becomes a filter for everything that follows.
Start with one defining idea
A visual world is not a moodboard. A moodboard collects; a world decides. Once there is a single defining idea, materials, colour and light stop being options and start being consequences. Soft wool suggests close framing. Close framing suggests diffused light. One choice pulls the next one into place.
Let materials lead
I spend a surprising amount of time touching things: fabric swatches, paper stock, a piece of stone from a location scout. Texture tells you how an image wants to be lit and how close the camera should sit. When the materials lead, the references can stay loose and the result still feels specific.
The last step is editing. A world becomes recognisable when its rules are consistent, so anything that does not belong is removed, however beautiful it is on its own.