Endless Options for Calendar Design

When committing to designing and printing a custom calendar, designers must first choose what exactly they want from a calendar. The traditional twelve-month calendar with images above and a dated grid below is but one of many options designers have when making this decision. This guide will walk designers through the many potential options in calendar design and help them make and informed decision on which style to choose from.

Options, Options 

A traditional twelve-month calendar will feature twenty-eight pages, saddle stitch bound, with the design aligned vertically to match the calendar itself. (Saddle stitching involves laying all pages over a “saddle” and placing a staple, or “stitch,” through what becomes the spine of the calendar, booklet or other document.) Twenty-four pages make up the calendar itself, the extra pages make the front and back covers. It’s possible to add pages for months that end the preceding year or begin the following year, as many calendars do.

This same format can be modified to a sixteen-page saddle stitched document to make a bimonthly calendar, where each spread features two months at a time with one corresponding image. This gives you twelve pages (one per every two months) plus four pages for a front and back cover. This option leaves less space for design work but also makes for a less expensive product in the long run.

Newer Options for Calendars 

These are the more common, traditional options for calendar design, but by no means are they the only options. Tear-pad calendars are small, convenient calendar options for your customers or clients to place on their desk or work surface to keep them abreast of the date and any holidays or events. Some designers include quotes, jokes, riddles, bits of poetry or song lyrics on their tear pad calendars, giving the recipient something to look forward to as they tear away the old day and start the new one.

Poster calendars are a bigger option for calendar design and can feature all twelve months on the same printed piece. Poster calendars are a great option for school schedules, sports team schedules or schedules of events relevant to the coming year for your customer’s business. These larger format calendars work well in breakrooms, conference rooms or other common spaces in the workplace. The same content can be printed on a smaller calendar as well: A postcard style calendar that features all the relevant dates in an upcoming school year, or the schedule for a regional sports team that features your company logo and contact information makes a simple, affordable gift and a great marketing product.

Remember Who to Call

Whether you decide to go with traditional saddle stitch calendars, large poster calendars or small, thoughtful tear-pad calendars or postcard calendars, you can count on U.S. Press to walk you through the designing and printing process to ensure you get the kind of product you’ve dreamed of. Contact your account manager or visit uspress.com to get started today.