My Journal Ecosystem as a Designer and artist
I am a lifelong notebook user. Even as a child, I kept different little notebooks for various things: writing short stories about magical girls, drawing my dream mansion, and making treasure maps in my own backyard.
Now in 2026 I am just about the same, except my notebooks have grown up with me. As a designer and artist for the planet I get to use my journals to plan my creative business and execute artistic projects. Writing truly enriches my life!
I’ve seen people sharing their journal ecosystems online this year and loved it. It’s nice to have a name for these interconnected notebook systems! I like how they can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like. I would love to share my journal ecosystem with you.
Before I get into the specifics, please know it doesn’t matter what brand of notebook you have or how much it cost! As long as your journals have a purpose and you enjoy using them, where you bought them is the least of your worries. I’ve built this up over a long time and out of necessity, so please also don’t feel like you need to go out and buy a bunch of notebooks. And this is supposed to be a flexible system. I use some of these all the time and some only once a month. The journals can change and get swapped out for something else. This is what I’ve currently got going on!
So without further ado, here are my journals!
The Commonplace Book
I first learned about this style of notebook from Youtube. I became obsessed with getting a traveller’s journal (which is made up of smaller notebooks bound in leather) to turn into a commonplace book. I like to use this one for all of my media-related notes. If I’m reading or watching something impactful, I like to take notes on it in here. I’m not as great at saving quotes or random learnings like other people do with their commonplace books. But I do have a nice place in there for random sketching if I’m out and about and want to doodle. It’s a good home to come back to if I want to incorporate something I was inspired by into a design project or writing piece.
The Bullet Journal Planner
I loved using bullet journals back in high school and college to organize my classwork and my life! When I was looking for something like this for my business, I stumbled upon a cool book about it at the library. I was flooded with memories of setting up my bullet journal spreads and using my favorite highlighters. I just had to do it again! Now I use this to plan out my work tasks, social events, meal plans, and everything in between. It’s nice to have it all in one place. This is a Leuchtturm1917.
The Creative Business Headquarters
This is one of my favorite notebooks in my setup. I like to use it to gather my ideas, plans, and offerings for my business. It is sadly almost full, so I’ll have to get a new one soon! But it’s a good place to brain dump all of my million floating ideas and then organize from there. Starting things out on paper then moving to digital is a great system for me.
The Sketchbook
I’ve kept a running sketchbook going since I was 12 and was teaching myself how to draw. This one is the latest. Its a Talens and I really enjoy it! It can take wet or dry media so I like to mix together paints with pencils and pen in my pieces. I’ve been diving deeper into gouache at the moment so there are a few of those studies in here. Any art I make that’s not on my iPad lives in here!
The Design Journal
This is a newer addition to the journal ecosystem. This little guy captures all of my initial design ideas for client projects (and my own design projects!) I like sketching out logos here at first before taking them into the computer. If it’s a print project I’m working on, I can draw out a diagram of the piece. It helps me wrap my head around things like trifolds and folding invitations. It’s fun to look back on after I’ve finished designing the piece on the computer and want to see my initial iterations.
The Daily Journal
This is another journal I use daily. I’ve kept a running diary for as long as I can remember, so I’ve truly gone through dozens of notebooks dedicated to documenting my daily life and thoughts! I think they’re a great thing to have and look back on. On a day-to-day basis, they help clear my mind and parse out my thoughts. I’ve made a conscious effort to allow myself to feel my feelings more, and this notebook is a vehicle for doing so. The current one I have has a pretty floral pattern for summer!
The Dream Journal
Cue the “he stole my dream journal!” exclamations from Sharkboy and Lava Girl. This one I don’t use as much, but it’s a more abstract place for me to keep my hopes and dreams. I am someone who needs a lot of inspiration to keep going. This journal has all my goals for life and my creative practice in it, so when I’m feeling down I open it up and remember what I’m working toward.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my journal ecosystem! Ironically I have even more notebooks that I use, but they’re more so for general learning, teaching myself things, and junk journalling. One day I’d like to share my collage journal spreads, so stay tuned for that. Hopefully this has given you some ideas for your own notebooks!
Without these journals in my life, I’d feel a lot less inspired and a lot more disorganized. There’s nothing like putting pen on paper for ideation, brain dumping, or just plain old ranting. They are a mirror for my mind. A way to speak to myself to truly find out what I’m thinking. I am so grateful to be a stationery addict!
I’d love to see what your journal set up looks like!
That’s all for now,
Sarah
No AI was used in the making of this blog.
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