How to Make a Calendar That Stays on the Wall

Every Christmas, it comes home with the turkey order: the calendar from the local butcher. Then there's the one from the garage, the pharmacy, and the GAA club's fundraiser with a different team photo every month. Nobody asked for them, but they all end up on a wall somewhere, and most of them are still there next December. That's what a good calendar does. If you're wondering how to make a calendar that earns its place in someone's kitchen, start with the ones that already have. (For the bigger picture, read why printed calendars are the gift that keeps on giving.)

Why the free calendar never comes down

The local shop calendar is a small Irish institution. Handed over at the counter in the last weeks of the year, it lands by the fridge or on the back of a door and stays there for twelve months. It isn't fancy, and it doesn't need to be. People check it every day: for the bin collection, the school holidays, the date of a match. Club calendars add one more trick: people know the faces on them, a neighbour in March, the under-12s in June.

That's the whole secret. A calendar stays up when it's useful, nice enough to look at, and feels like it came from someone you know. A logo on its own has never got anyone through a whole year.

Start with where it will hang

Before you think about pictures, think about the spot. A calendar that doesn't fit its place ends up in a drawer.

• In the kitchen or the workshop, a wall calendar with a big picture each month does the talking.
• On an office desk, a desk calendar stands on its own, right next to the keyboard.
• For anyone who likes to plan ahead, a three-month memo calendar shows three months at a glance, with space to jot things down.
• On the office wall where the whole team checks deadlines, a year planner puts all twelve months on one sheet.

How to make a calendar in six steps

Once you know where it's going, the rest falls into place:

1. Pick one theme for all twelve months, so the calendar tells a story instead of showing twelve random pictures.
2. Add the dates yourself. Months and days aren't printed on automatically, so they need to be part of your design, and a template saves you most of the fiddling.
3. Mark the dates that matter to your customers: bank holidays, your Christmas opening hours, the week of your sale.
4. Keep the logo small and the pictures big. People keep calendars they like looking at, not adverts.
5. Check the digital proof carefully before it goes to print, especially the dates. A February with 30 days gets noticed.
6. Plan it in October or November, so it's ready to hand out in December, before everyone has one.

Calendar design ideas that keep people looking

Stuck on a theme? These calendar ideas work for almost any business, and on any of our custom calendars:

• Your team, one person per month, somewhere that says something about them.
• Your products through the seasons, from a frosty January shot to a bright one in July.
• Favourite spots around your town, captured by a local photographer.
• A tip a month from your trade, like a garage's winter checklist or a garden centre's planting guide. Ideal on a desk calendar, where people read it up close.
• A recipe per month, if you run a café or a restaurant.
• Photos from your customers or the local club, with permission, so people find themselves on the wall.
• Illustrations by a local artist, which turn the calendar into something worth keeping.

The final touch

Don't just post it. Hand it over at the counter the way the butcher does, or tuck a short handwritten note in with it. A calendar that arrives with a thank-you goes up on the wall with a good feeling attached, and that feeling gets looked at every day for twelve months. And if you're planning more for the end of the year, our advent calendar ideas might give you a few more.