The majority of my friends and family have no idea what I do on a day to day basis. I’m writing this particular post as an example of the typical process of one of my projects.

We recently had an important meeting with one of our top clients who requested that we present some of our new journal designs, along with corresponding trend boards that explained why we chose the patterns and colors that we did. Below are a few of the journals that I designed for this meeting. I created these journals with our client’s customer demographic and age group in mind (they sell the majority of their journals to teenage girls between the ages of 13-18). I then styled and photographed them, and finally arranged them in a PowerPoint presentation next to their matching trend boards.

During the actual meeting, I presented my designs in person while explaining why I thought each would appeal to their particular customer. The meeting went great as a whole and now I wait with crossed fingers to see what they will select for their stores. Once they get back to me, I will have a few weeks to turn my designs into final art, select Pantone and foil colors, and create a specification sheet to send to our factory. After about a month, the factory will send me production samples of the product for me to approve. Once approved, the factory will continue production for the full amount of the order and then it will be shipped off in containers to the individual stores of the client.

Voilà, that’s how our journals are made!