Building a Digital Planner in Affinity Publisher desktop V1

Class Description

Hi! I am Jen Lezan, I run a creative studio (Bella+Sophia Creative) based out of the Midwest that focuses on Graphic Design, Surface Pattern Design and Illustration. I have a background working in the fashion industry and teaching in higher education. I specialize in creating surface pattern designs and other illustrated digital media for the fashion, product and stationary industries. Aside from my work in fashion and graphic design, I really enjoy planning! In addition to paper planning, I have a fond appreciation for digital planning. Some of my top selling products are my digital planners and stickers sets in my Etsy shop. Which is why I am excited to share this next class with you. Building a digital planner in Affinity Publisher V1 is not nearly as hard as you think. I wanted to share some tips, my knowledge and help you build a digital planner that you can customize to your needs. I also find that digital planners are less intimidating as you don’t feel so much pressure when creating spreads in them because you can always undo. Finally, digital planners are a bit more eco friendly than your traditional paper planners as you can reuse them over and over again.

What the class is about

In this class, you will learn how to create a linked digital planner in Affinity Publisher V1. I really enjoy using Affinity publisher for creating planners and printable because it is so easy to create precise shapes, space them evenly, add vector effects to the shapes and link all of your pages to prepare them for your digital note taking app. It’s also easy to add dates to the planner and keep the numbers and shapes properly aligned using the align tools.

You can choose to create either a dated or an undated planner as your class project. I’ll outline options for both and we’ll go over the pros and cons of creating a dated vs. an undated planner. This course is a fantastic class to also get comfortable using Affinity Publisher – as you are going through the basic process of creating in the program and you get a tangible project that you can use after you are done.

A few of the skills students will learn

You will learn how create your own digital planner in Affinity Publisher V1. We will start with the basics of understanding the tool bars and functions in the Affinity Publisher workspace, then we will start to build out our digital planner. You will learn how to design basic layouts, create pages, get an understanding of the layers function in the program, learn how to create tabs and how to link those tabs to pages in your layout. We will also go over how to use the shape tools, the line tool and how to use the the move and align functions. You will get a better understanding of the layer FX tools and how to add things like embossing and shadows to make items feel more 3-D. We will learn how to create basic buttons and icons and even how to create simple stickers (I’ll have a more in-depth course on this coming soon). Finally, we will go over how to export your file for use in note taking apps like Goodnotes and how to load it into the app on your iPad. We will go over some simple tasks in Goodnotes like how to write on your planner, how to add text, how to add your stickers and how to duplicate pages and spreads.

You can use the planner you create in this class to offer as a free download if you are trying to build an email list, sell it on your website or a site like Etsy or Creative Market. To make things easier, I will be including the class project affinity publisher template that you can edit and get acquainted with before you start your own!

Supplies Needed for this Class

All you need to take this class is your iPad, The Goodnotes app or any other note taking app and of course your laptop or computer with Affinity Publisher. I hope you enjoy the course, let’s get creating!

Who the class is geared toward or if any prior knowledge or experience is required

This class is geared towards beginners. You don’t need any prior experience using the Affinity Publisher software as I will be going over the basics to help you get comfortable using the software.

Some very basic technical abilities will be needed as I will be showing you step by step how to use the procreate app on the iPad and how to build your pattern in the Affinity Photo program on a desktop to create a raster based repeat pattern.

An overview of the class project

For your class project, we will be creating your very own digital planner.

BEFORE YOU START PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CONFIRM THE PLANNER DIMENSIONS FOR THE APP YOU WILL BE WORKING IN. This class is working with a 2000 pixel X 1600 pixel file at 300 dpi. I make my planners a little larger than Goodnotes standard sizes for quality reasons and so I can print at a later date. To deter any potential sizing issues you can also just use the template I have provided in the class resource section OR you can check out the goodnotes site where they list their standard dimensions.You can find Goodnotes standard file sizes on the goodnotes website support section.

PROJECT GOALS

You will create a 6 spread layout featuring a cover page with a notes area, a goal planning spread, a weekly spread, a monthly spread, a daily spread, and a spread for your sticker in the program including linked tabs and sections that feature things like calendars, to do lists, weekly outlines and more. You will be duplicating your monthly spread 12 times for each month of the year. Finally, you will also be creating a basic digital sticker and button set for use in your planner.

Planner Spreads

– Goals Spread –

– Daily Spread –

– Weekly Spread –

– Monthly Spread –

– Branding Spread –

Please Note

Make sure to check out the course resources which include: a resource guide, affinity publisher templates, a PDF version of the digital planner I help you build in the course and a Goodnotes version as well. This is loaded as a zip file due to the file size, so make sure you have a program that can unzip it and access all the project files, resources, and templates.

You can download a trial or purchase Affinity Publisher V1 on the Serif website.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have access to the course materials?

You can view and review the lecture materials indefinitely, like an on-demand channel.

Can I take my courses with me wherever I go?

Definitely! If you have an internet connection, courses on Udemy are available on any device at any time. If you don’t have an internet connection, some instructors also let their students download course lectures. That’s up to the instructor though, so make sure you get on their good side!