Behind the Design Weekly Series: Crafting the Vision – Mood Boarding, Inspirations & Colors for Digital Planner Design | Episode 3
Welcome back, The Pink Ink® community! This is Behind the Design, a weekly series for aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives where we document the process of building a digital planner business from scratch. We’re following Claudia, one of The Pink Ink® team who is on creative journey to create her own digital planner with the help of Digital Planner Academy®, and we welcome you to implement her weekly strategies alongside her.
Last week, we dove deeper into the “why” behind your design and the significance behind putting yourself into your planner through experiences and knowledge. We also covered the importance of having community and a support system through your journey.
Claudia honed in on her signature process that’s designed specifically for multi-passionate people, and now she’s ready to accomplish her next goal. This week, we’ll be following along with Claudia as she searches for inspiration and begins the technical portion of organizing planner pages. This week has some fun challenges in store, so stay tuned!
This Week’s Goal
Claudia is currently in Germany, working on the next step in the design process. It’s pretty amazing that she can work on her planner design in any location, and it shows that one of the greatest benefits of designing and selling online planners is the flexibility and freedom that comes with it.
At this point, Claudia is set on the multi-passionate flow planner, which is a creative-based idea that will target other multi-passionate individuals. She’s taken the time to identify strengths, experiences, and knowledge that can enhance her planner, and now Claudia is focusing on the creative elements of finding inspiration, along with the technical pieces of organization and page planning.
She’s also focusing on taking time for herself to reflect on values and goals, which will positively influence her inspiration and the direction she’ll take the design of the multi-passionate planner. Let’s take a look at what Claudia has achieved this week!
This Week’s Accomplishment
In the video, Claudia mentions taking the time to unplug and eliminate any external noise, whether that’s devices or social media. This can be as simple as taking 5-10 minutes per day to reflect on your process and values. Turn off your phone and take a walk through nature while contemplating your vision and the future of your business. We promise you’ll be amazed at the results!
Claudia found that eliminating the noise helped to better identify her core values and where to direct her energy, which is a huge accomplishment for this week. You may notice that throughout the past 3 episodes, Claudia emphasizes reflection and contemplation. As you move forward, it’s important to be thoughtful in order to create a meaningful product.
In her most recent weekly call with Shay (the founder of ThePinkInk®), Claudia reflected on how her signature process will look, including translating pages for a planner and the actual content that will be on the pages. They began the technical process behind the planner, which involved where the pages would fit in the planner and how the planner would be organized.
A big focus for this week was finding inspiration, which is a key step before jumping into the actual creation. Claudia got started with moodboarding this week since she feels clear on her signature process. She looked for inspiration on Pinterest and started considering design aesthetics for the planner pages that she would want to use.
Takeaway
The big takeaway from this episode is to find inspiration around you, whether that’s on Pinterest or from referencing other planners. If you’re following along with Claudia on her design journey, it’s recommended to create a moodboard. While you do this, be sure to take time for yourself to continually reflect on values and future goals.
One key tip that Claudia covered in the video was utilizing the milestone to workbook in the digital planner academy. Here, you’ll find inspiration for your pages and fonts. This step is simply about collecting ideas and fitting designs together. This is the fun part, so enjoy it!
As you continue in your design process, remember that we’re here to encourage you! Our Digital Planner Academy® offers support and advice from peers that are on the same journey as you, as well as mentors who have achieved creating a successful online planner. We encourage you to sign up for the Academy and for weekly notifications to follow along with Claudia on Behind the Design!
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Join us on our weekly series by subscribing to follow the blog for updates! We’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on the series, whether on how it’s helped you, where we can improve, or what you’ve learned from Claudia’s story. If you know other entrepreneurs or creatives who could benefit from this series, share this blog post to spread the word and help someone else. We’re excited to take this journey with you. See you next week!
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About The Pink Ink®
At The Pink Ink®, we’ve turned our own digital planner business into a successful enterprise that now teaches others to do the same. Shay established The Pink Ink® in 2018 as one of the first digital planner sellers on Etsy and grew it to help aspiring designers to create, launch, and market their planners to create passive income and diversify revenue streams. Within 2 weeks, her store made its first sale, and within 2 months, it covered Shay’s full-time income!
With our experience and knowledge, we want to watch others reach financial freedom in their own lives and experience the benefits of running an online shop for themselves and loved ones. To read our full story, check out The Pink Ink’s About Us page.
About The Digital Planner Academy® Hybrid Program
The Digital Planner Academy Hybrid Program is designed to teach other entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners how to create their own digital planners through design software and real-world advice from mentors. We walk students through the process of creating and selling their own digital product from beginning to end with a goal of helping you reach financial freedom.
Every year, we do updates on our customers’ needs and shifts in online business. In 2023, we turned this into a hybrid program where you not only get access to video lessons, but you also receive 1:1 feedback and support from The Pink Ink® team, whether for general support, design ideas, or initial launch.
If you’re ready to get started in building your digital planner business, check out our blog The Digital Planner Academy® Program - the Best Online Course for Aspiring Digital Planner Business Owners and follow along with our weekly Behind the Design series.
The Purpose of This Weekly Series
What exactly is Behind the Design and why did we create it?
Shay was once an aspiring business owner, so she understands the stressful process of building a company from the ground up. Especially as one of the first in her niche, Shay paved the way for other business owners and picked up valuable skills that she now shares with others. She hopes to ignite creativity and help others do the same.
The best way to accomplish this is by demonstrating how it’s done through a step-by-step process– and what better way than to watch an entrepreneur reach success in real-time? There’s potential challenges that lie in the path of any creative individual – it’s inevitable – but it’s important to overcome these obstacles. Following another designer provides motivation to overcome these challenges, practical guidance and advice, and realistic steps and expectations.
Getting started is often the hardest part, but it’s never too late. In fact, now’s the perfect time! Take this opportunity to take the first step and build your business alongside Claudia. You’ll learn so much through this process, and you’ll reap the rewards of hard work and dedication. Let’s take that first leap together!
Join Us on an Adventure
With a goal to empower individuals to unlock their true creative potential like Claudia is doing, The Pink Ink® team is excited to see where this series leads. We invite you to join us on this exciting adventure and take grasp of the unique opportunity provided. With Claudia and The Pink Ink® members at your side, you have the tools and support to achieve success.
To stay up to date with each piece of the series, you can sign up to receive weekly email updates. We’re looking forward to the insights and creativity that each week offers, and we’re excited to welcome you into our community!