Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today I want to share about my process of creating the Artist of Life workbook.
I've kind of been hibernating.
I haven't been posting as many videos
because I've been working on next year's version of this workbook.
First off, I want to thank Skillshare for collaborating with me on this video,
and for being an amazing online learning resource, because without Skillshare,
I would not have been able to work on this next version of the workbook.
It's really helped me so much.
I'm gonna share a lot about it in this video.
I first came out with this Artist of Life workbook last year.
I had the idea
almost a year ago in October.
And the idea was just to create a digital PDF.
So I first created it in Pages, which is a software that comes free on all Macbooks.
And then I exported it into PDF.
And then, everyone was nudging me
to create a print version of the workbook, and I was really scared to do it.
But in the end I decided to do it.
And I realized that, when I had to send a design to the printer,
to get the actual workbook printed, they needed the InDesign file.
I had the software, InDesign by Adobe, in my computer, but I just didn't really know
how to use it.
So I just put the PDF on InDesign and I fumbled through it and sent it.
But this year, I really wanted to learn how to use InDesign
so that I could properly design an official, professional-looking workbook.
And I'm so excited because this year is going to be in color.
My first step to creating this workbook was to collect feedback from all of you guys
who bought the workbook last year.
I think collecting feedback and surveying people,
asking people questions, is really, really important because you have to
understand your customer.
You have to understand what people want out of your product.
So it's really helpful to have that information.
Last year, since it was my first time
creating this workbook, what I did was: I designed the workbook and then I sent it out
to ten or more friends and also Lavendaire followers too, so that they could give me
feedback on the workbook.
And I actually made a lot of changes based on what people told me.
In business and creating a product, it's really, really important to get feedback
and then tweak your product accordingly so that you create something
that you're happy with but also everyone else is happy with.
The next step is to gather samples or photos for inspiration on how I want
my workbook to look like.
I spent a day, I went out to stationary stores
and I picked out papers that I liked and cover materials that I liked
so that I could send it to the manufacturer.
And I had some photos
that I had online of other notebooks that I really liked.
This might be unique to my experience because I'm getting these custom-printed in China,
and it's best if you have a physical example of "This is the exact type of paper
or exact type of material that I want," or " This is the exact color that I want,"
because some of those things, it's really hard to communicate online or even through
Skype.
So I just gathered all the details and specs for the workbook: what size it is,
how many pages.
And also: I care about being environmental
so I'm trying to make it all recyclable and using natural soybean inks, things like that.
Meanwhile, I'm also working on the design for the print Artist of Life workbook.
The reason why the print design is the most urgent is because it takes time
to go through the printer, for them to make a sample, send you a sample.
Then you have to check to see the quality and stuff, and send your feedback
so that they can make another round.
So I wanted to give myself a few months in advance
to finish the print design way early.
I've kind of been pushing my deadline a little bit.
So these two weeks were my crunch time for finishing the design.
I literally just sent the draft design last night.
So let me talk about that process.
A lot of people wonder what program I use to make my worksheets.
I use Photoshop mainly because I feel that I'm the most comfortable with Photoshop.
For last year's Artist of Life workbook, the digital version, I actually used Pages,
which is the app that comes with your Macbook.
And like I said, this year
I wanted to make the workbook on InDesign, so I didn't have knowledge on InDesign.
I didn't really know how it worked.
And for me, my favorite way to learn anything,
video-editing, Photoshop, whatever, is to watch tutorials.
So I first went to watch
Adobe's basic tutorials on their website.
And then I browsed Skillshare for InDesign classes,
and I think I watched a few different classes on InDesign.
My favorite class I found
on Skillshare on InDesign was called "InDesign Essential Training" by Daniel Scott.
And if you guys are interested in learning InDesign, I highly recommend
you check out that class because the teacher, Daniel Scott, teaches so well.
He's funny, he's lively, and he's really detailed but doesn't take too long to explain things.
It's very concise, short and sweet.
It's a bunch of short videos,
but in total, I think the class is over five hours.
So when I wanted to approach designing this workbook, the first thing I did was sit down
for two evenings just to watch tutorials.
I just sat and watched a few hours of InDesign tutorials
and took notes on the side.
I feel like watching tutorials is the fastest way
to learn something because it's so much faster to learn from someone else who's an expert
vs. figuring out on your own.
Last year I tried to figure it out on my own
and I just didn't understand it.
But after watching a few tutorials, I felt like I was a "pro" at it,
or "pro" enough to design the stuff that I want to design.
And it just surprised me
how many things are so easy to do in InDesign that are so hard to do
in Photoshop or other programs.
Simple things like making a paragraph line,
a line that goes through the entire page.
Literally, guys, the kind of lines I used
for this first Artist of Life workbook was underline and that bottom...
I literally just typed in a lot of underlines to make a line.
But in InDesign, you could create lined pages with paragraph rules.
And my favorite thing is called Paragraph Styling.
That's where you can create a style,
style this font or create some sort of font style, and you can apply it to,
for example, all of your headings or all of your body text.
And if later down the line–
and this happens really often–you decide to change up your font style,
you maybe want to make this header bigger or change it to a different font,
you can change it and then Paragraph Styles will automatically change
all of the other headings in the document so that you don't have to change them all
one by one.
You know what I mean?
You make one change and it applies to all.
Honestly, my point of being so long-winded is that it's always important to continue
learning,
continue honing your craft.
And it's always good to invest in yourself,
even though some people are like, "Oh, it's good to jump right in and start creating."
Yes, but it's also good to take the time to gather your knowledge
and all the resources so that you're better prepared to start that project.
So, if you guys are interested in designing your own stuff, like creating a workbook
of your own or worksheets of your own, you want to do it through InDesign or Photoshop,
definitely check out Skillshare.
I have a link where you can get a free two months premium,
so definitely take advantage of that link.
It's down below and I think it's valid
for the first two hundred people so act fast.
By the way, if you don't know what Skillshare is, I've been talking about it so much.
But Skillshare is an online learning community of over 17,000 classes in design,
business, marketing, anything you can really think of in the realms of creativity.
I personally love learning online through tutorials, watching people talk
and share their knowledge, watching interviews, things like that.
So something like Skillshare is really valuable for me.
Alright, so after the designs are finished for the print workbook and also the design
for the cover, then I plan to–I haven't done it yet, that's why I plan to–
resize it to 8.5 by 11 to create the digital workbook.
This is in size A5,
so the design is currently this size, and I plan to size it up obviously,
as a normal PDF sheet paper.
It's interesting because last year, I did it the opposite.
I went from PDF to A5 and I had to shrink everything down, and this time
I have to expand everything.
But should be easier this time around
because InDesign just works a lot quicker with things like resizing and stuff like that.
After the design for the digital PDF is done, there's also an extra step of creating boxes
for people to fill out answers digitally.
I'm not sure if I can do that in InDesign.
I think I can.
Last year I used another Adobe program to do it, but we'll see.
So that's the next step.
Then the next step after that is to share it with you guys, to post it,
actually to upload the product on my website.
For those of you curious,
I get so many questions about this: I use Wordpress for my website and blog.
And then I use the plugin WooCommerce to set up the shop page of my website.
So everything is done within the Wordpress platform, but if you don’t have Wordpress
and you want to sell something, there are other websites where you can sell stuff,
like Shopify is good.
I'm sure you should do your own research,
since I'm only comfortable talking about Wordpress and WooCommerce.
FYI, I plan to launch this workbook and the Mastermind program at the end of November.
I can't say a hard date yet because I really don't know how long the printing will take
and whether it will arrive on time.
A lot of stuff is still up in the air,
but I want to launch it end of November.
I'm going to launch it, first, to my email list.
So whoever's signed up for my email list will be able to purchase the workbook
two days in advance.
And then I'm going to do an official big launch
on my YouTube channel after that.
So if you want to be a part of the soft launch,
then the link to sign up for my email list is down below.
I'm super excited about it.
I'm honestly so proud of this workbook.
I mean, I'm proud of the first version already.
You don't understand the feeling you get when first can hold something
that you've designed and made all on your own.
But I'm excited about next year's version
because the design is so much prettier than this year's design.
This year's design was black and white, it's clunky.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I was doing it on Pages.
And this year, it's in color and it's just gonna be on another level.
And that's just what I hope to do.
I hope to continue leveling up.
I'm trying to get
more and more pro with whatever I'm doing, try to be official, you know what I mean?
So I'd love if you guys just join me on this journey.
I'll be sharing more videos of my journey as the time progresses.
Lastly, since this video is in collaboration with Skillshare–who are amazing people,
by the way–
I am doing a giveaway.
This will be my last giveaway with Skillshare for a while,
so take advantage of this.
So comment on my Instagram photo.
You guys know what to do.
Follow Skillshare, follow me, comment on that photo what you would like to learn on Skillshare.
And then I will pick two winners to win a free year of Skillshare Premium,
so you have an entire year to learn as much as you want.
It's overwhelming, but it's really cool.
So if you guys are interested, enter there, and the giveaway will end October 10th.
I'll DM the winners on Instagram, and I'll post a comment at the bottom
saying the giveaway is closed.
But anyway, I do have a link
for two free months of Skillshare Premium down below.
You can sign up right there.
And keep in touch!
I'm so excited about this workbook, and that's it.
Alright, have a great day guys.
I love you so much.
Please subscribe if you haven't already.
This is pretty late to say this, but okay.
Bye!