On this project, I was asked by a client to design a music journal for her students to use. Most similar journals that she could find were the size of index cards, which left little room to write in - she was looking for a notebook sized layout to use. Additionally, she wanted the covers of each journal to be customized for each student.

Getting feedback from both student and instructor lead to the design above; the student requested that the cover feature rainbow colored text, and after featuring several different fonts, they requested the Amadaeus Regular font be used.

For text inside the journal, the Myriad Pro font had the best look: it was clean, legible, and professionel looking, while not appearing over-used the way Times New Roman does. At the request of my client, the contact information was left blank, with lines that could be filled in instead should their information change later.

The bulk of the journal comprised of the page above. Each page representing a week-long period of assignment, with space provided for notes under each section. These were left open for free-hand writing by design. To liven the page up a little, I utilized the stylized music staff from the cover here as well, along with vector artwork of a grand-piano. This helped keep the page from appearing too empty, while not overly cluttering it either.

The next page layout requested was for blank music staffs that could be written on. For a layout, simple to design, but the page appeared rather bland with just the blank staffs on it. Layout constraints prevented me from adding much in design, but adding artwork to the bottom of the page provides some decoration to make it more interesting.

The last page layout was for records; my client runs a reward program for her students, where each time they can perform an assigned piece the week after it's assigned sufficiently to "complete" the assignment, they earn a sticker on a tracking card. Using a 4x4 grid, each time a card is filled, the student earns a reward.

Before, the reward would typically be a sheet-music of their choice, but with this new layout, I left room for the option of different rewards being written into the top-field of each card, such as possibly an ice-cream cone for younger students, or any other ideas she or her students came up with. As only three were requested per page, I felt the rest of the layout needed to be filled in with something to make the pages visually interesting. The artwork I had on hand, of various animals playing different instruments, fit well when combined with music notes I had created in Illustrator.

Photographs taken of the printed journal below show what the finished design looks like after print - for future journals, a new cover design will be made for each student, along with work done on a general cover design as well, so that the design can be utilized for multiple students even if a customized cover is not available.