Author | Jackie

When you sit down to design your digital planner, you will need to think about not only who it is for but also what it will look like.

If you are new to graphic design, struggle to put colours or fonts together, or aren’t sure even how you start to create a Style Guide, this post is for you. It will walk you through five simple steps to creating a digital planner style you and your customers will love.

Although thinking of colours and fonts sounds like fun - and it is! - if this isn’t something you’ve done before, it can also feel a little daunting. Perhaps you think it is something professional designers or ‘creative’ people do. 

I believe some people do have an eye for graphic design. But, they also have training in colour theory, pairing fonts, design software, and experience! A slight advantage, I think you will agree. Hardly a fair comparison if you are new to this.

The answer? A little training of your own. 

No, you don’t need to learn everything about graphic design. Every design project has specific skills and knowledge requirements. You just need to know enough to design a digital planner. 

1 | Gather Inspiration

Taking a little time to gather visual inspiration is so important. Not only does this kickstart your creative juices, it makes sure you are designing the right planner for your ideal audience.

Identifying a person, theme, and style makes choosing colours and fonts a breeze. It starts to bring your planner to life, even before you open your design software.

This is also a really enjoyable way to start the process. Unfortunately, it can be a little too enjoyable! I would suggest setting yourself a time limit on this if you want to move quickly on to step 2.

You can find more tips on gathering and collating inspiration in the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide.

Taken from the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide

2 | Choose a Colour Palette

Your inspiration and branding will go a long way to determining the colours in your digital planner.

A digital planner is predominantly an empty document with a hyperlinked structure. It is, after all, designed for someone else to add the content. As there is so much white space, any addition of colour can have a big impact. 

When pulling together a colour scheme for your design, you may be starting with a single brand colour or have a favourite colour in mind. This is a great starting point and from here you can build a complete colour palette based on simple colour theory.

I find it helpful to see colour theory applied to real-life examples. In the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide, I use the Bonus Guides to show how I applied the inspiration and simply colour theory to create the colour palettes.

Taken from the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide

3 | Choose Font Pairings

Text on a digital planner is functional, but can also be used to add flourish and character to your design.

When considering font pairings, you will want to look for two fonts:

• one for navigation: for the side tabs and table headings, so it needs to be legible at a smaller font size
• one for headings and the cover: which can be more decorative or ornate as it is used at a larger font size, and this font can be used to add a particular style or character to your planner

You can find tips for font pairing and simple font theory in the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide. I also show how I applied the font theory to create the Bonus guides.

Font Chapter | Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide

4 | Add Elements

Elements fall into two categories: 

• functional: e.g. menu icons, diagrams
• decorative: e.g. patterns, illustrations

Although they seem like optional extras, Elements are an easy way to add helpful, visual navigation and also a unique style to your planner. 

They are also useful for reinforcing your own branding. For example, if your digital planner is being designed to work alongside a signature process or service you offer.

You can find examples of design treatments for elements and also how to use patterns to reinforce a style in the Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide.

Contents Page | Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide

5 | Compile Your Style Guide

You will now need to bring everything together in one place and create your final Style Guide.

Why bother with a Guide rather than a collection of research? 

Because seeing everything on one page makes it easy to see if everything works together. 

After all, that is what a Style Guide is all about. Making sure your digital planner design works.

So, don’t be tempted to skip this step. You may find you want to tweak your colours, or change the style of your elements so they work as a cohesive collection.

The Create Your Own digital Planner Style Guide includes a Style Guide Template to help you create your final Style Guide (Affinity Publisher V2 and Canva versions included).

Bonus Affinity Publisher & Canva Templates | Create Your Own Digital Planner Style Guide

5 Steps to a Digital Planner Style Guide

I hope you feel less daunted by the idea of a Style Guide now. It is simply about gathering inspiration and turning that into a visual guide.

If this post has whetted your appetite and you are ready to start working on your own Style Guide, take a look at How to Create Your Own digital Planner Style Guide | from inspiration to style guide in five simple steps. 

This 41-page Guide walks you through each step, including:

• basic colour and font theory
• applying theory to sample guides
• professional design tips
• how to find resources and inspiration
• plus 3 Bonus read-to-use Style Guides
• and a Style Guide Template for Affinity Publisher or Canva

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