Design Bullet Journal Printables in Affinity Publisher V1

Hello everyone welcome to my latest class! I’m Jen Lezan and I’ll be your teacher for this course. I am coming back with another Affinity Publisher V1 focused class that revolves around physical planning and productivity related printables. As I am sure you can tell already, I really enjoy planning! Planning lets me take my need for organization and allows me to combine it with my graphic design background and creativity to come up with some fantastic productivity printables that I sell on digital marketplaces, but that I also use in my daily life for both work and family related organizing.

For this course, I wanted to take you through my process of how I design bullet journal style digital printables that can be used for paper planning. I personally sell these products online, but this can also just be a personal project that you utilize for yourself. I find that I enjoy the concept of bullet journaling, but it can take quite a bit of time to draw all of the beautiful layouts that are out there by hand. So, my solution for that is to design them in Affinity Publisher.

I wanted to share some tips, my knowledge and process to help you build a productivity printable that you can customize to your needs. Using Affinity Publisher V1 makes things a little less cumbersome as you don’t have to erase as you would if you were designing these spreads by hand and instead you can just undo! I also love the fact that this is a great asset that can be used as giveaways for email sign ups or that you can sell them as downloads on digital market places. You only have to make it once and you can reuse it time and time again or you can sell it over and over again.

What the class is about

In this class, I wanted to take things a step further – rather than just walking you through the process of designing a composition and how to use Affinity Publisher V1, I also wanted to share some of the theories behind what is considered “good” composition. At the very beginning of this class, we will go through some basics and tips for good composition and layout. Ideas that as you create printables more and more, will start to come more naturally. These design principles allow you to communicate ideas in visual format more effectively. Then, we will jump into the basics of Affinity Publisher.

A few of the skills students will learn

You will learn the basics of how to use the Affinity Publisher V1 tools and interface to design a bullet journal style planner printable. Keeping in mind the basics of design and composition, we will design a printable that you can then customize to your own liking or in order to use it for sale in your own shop.

I like using affinity publisher for creating printables because it is so easy to create precise shapes, space them evenly, align elements and design using multiple spreads and master spreads. This course is a fantastic class to also really hone in on your layout design skill and get more comfortable with Affinity Publisher – as you are going through the basic process of creating in the program by designing the class project.

As I said before, We will start with the basics of understanding design principles as they relate to composition and layout. Then we will jump into the basics of Affinity Publisher V1. We will go over the tool bars and functions in the Affinity Publisher workspace, then we will start to build out our bullet journal style planner printable. You will learn how to design basic layouts, create pages, get an understanding of the layers function in the program/ We will also go over how to use the shape tools, the line tool and how to use the the move and align functions. Then, we will get your file exported so you can test it on your home printer. Finally, we will go over some tips to keep in mind for setting up your file for use on digital marketplaces. Remember, in order to sell your final printable – you do need to make some changes to the final layout so it is your own.

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. I will also include a PDF and JPEG of the file that you can print out for personal use.

What you Need to Take this Course

All you need to take this class is a computer with Affinity Publisher V1 installed. I would also suggest having access to some paper and a printer so you can test print your final design.

An overview of the class project

For your class project, we will be creating your very own bullet journal inspired planner printable. You will create 1 layout featuring a daily productivity concept keeping in mind the principals of design as they relate to composition and layout.

Who the class is geared toward

This class is geared towards beginners. You don’t need any prior experience in graphic design or in using the Affinity Publisher software. I will be going over the basics to help you get comfortable using the software as well as understanding the design principals and elements.

Class Project Deliverables

Jpeg of your final Printable

Optional – Download link to your hi-resolution version of your Printable.

Resources

Download the class project sample under the class resources

Don’t forget to submit your final project deliverables to the class project gallery. Remember to load a jpeg of your final printable and if you feel inclined to, definitely share a link to the hi resolution version for download! I would love to see what you made!

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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!