Affinity Designer

This workbook turns the Affinity Designer course into two finished deliverables: a small logo system and a multi-artboard asset set exported for both print and screen. Each section maps to one course module and moves you from document setup and the Personas, through vector drawing and assembly, to raster detail and production export. Work in a single Affinity Designer file and keep an editable master copy before any destructive step such as expanding strokes or converting text to curves.

Set up correct documents, learn the workspace, and become fluent switching between the three Personas.

Before creating each document, fill in this sheet so the colour mode, DPI, units, and bleed are right from the start. Complete one column for a screen project and one for a print project.

Open a blank document. Click each Persona button in turn and watch the Tools panel change. Draw a shape in the Designer Persona, paint a stroke on a new pixel layer in the Pixel Persona, then open the Export Persona and note the Slices panel. Return to the Designer Persona and confirm your work persisted.

Build precision with shapes and the Transform panel, master the Pen tool, and finish paths with nodes, corners, and strokes.

Trace a simple shape (a leaf, a number, or a single letter) using the Pen tool in standard mode. Place nodes only where the curve changes direction and use as few as possible. Do not add a node to fix a wobble; instead adjust the existing Bezier handles. Close the path and compare your node count to your first attempt.

Draw a rectangle, then use the Corner tool to round its corners live, trying rounded, straight (chamfer), and concave styles. Give it a 2 px stroke aligned to the inside, then duplicate it and run Layer then Expand Stroke on the copy. Observe what you can and cannot edit afterwards.

For each key shape you draw, record its Transform values and stroke settings so the set stays consistent and pixel-aligned.

Assemble shapes with Geometry operations, make them reusable with Symbols and Assets, and lay out variations on artboards.

Build three marks entirely from primitive shapes and Geometry operations: a crescent moon (Subtract), a cross or plus (Add two rectangles), and an abstract leaf (Intersect two circles). Create at least one as a non-destructive Compound by holding Alt while clicking the operation, then edit a child shape to confirm the result updates live.

Plan the variations your logo system needs before drawing artboards, so every version shares one source where possible.

Turn your logo mark into a Symbol and place three instances across three artboards (primary full colour, single-colour black, and reversed white-on-dark). Edit the Symbol master once and confirm all instances update. Add the wordmark with Artistic Text, then duplicate it and Convert to Curves on the copy.

Add raster texture in the Pixel Persona, keep effects non-destructive, manage colour, and export production-ready files.

Switch to the Pixel Persona, add a new pixel layer above one of your shapes, and paint a soft texture or shadow with a low-opacity round brush. Clip the pixel layer to the vector shape so the texture respects the edges. Switch back to the Designer Persona and confirm the vectors are untouched.

Record the effects, filters, and adjustments you apply and confirm each remains editable so you can re-tune later.

Export your work three ways: an SVG of the primary logo via File then Export, a PDF/X of a print version with bleed and crop marks enabled, and a multi-density PNG set of your asset artboards using the Export Persona with slices at 1x, 2x, and 3x. Open each exported file outside Affinity to confirm it looks correct.