In preparation for visual design, I lead a Style Tile exercise, a unique activity designed to cull adjectives and visual preferences from folks not used to discussing subjective terms. I love it! It is strong at pushing clients away from comparing their brand to others, "Apple" or "Google", and filters out common go tos like, "clean" and "modern". The above image (and two below) are results from the exercise, which begins with a stakeholder interview. Never heard of Style Tiles? Check them out!