I think most of us have this desire to have journals that look “cool.” When you see journals like Jose Naranja’s journals you can’t help but want something like that for yourself. My current series of journals was inspired by the journals of fashion photographer Peter Beard. I came across one small photograph in a magazine of one of his journals. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Filled with collage, bones, blood, and all other kinds of ephemera. That image inspired me to grab the nearest composition notebook I had and start filling it up. My early journals are filled with mostly random things glued in, bits of poems, crayon drawings, daily ephemera. It wasn’t diary-like at all other than the fact that I dated each entry. It wasn’t until about three quarters the way through that I started thinking about really structuring my journal with themes.
Themes are a great way to develop your journal aesthetic. In my own journaling practice, all of my own journals are titled and I use the title as my theme. These titles reflect the main topic that I wish to address in that particular journal. Not every entry has to touch on this topic but for the most part they do. My journal cover art usually ties in with this as well. Here’s one of my journals as an example. It is titled “Mindfulness” and the cover incorporates Buddhist imagery. Many of the entries in this particular journal focused on mindfulness practice.
There are two types of themes you can use: visual themes and content themes. You can even do a combination of the two as seen in my example above. Visual themes strive for a consistent design aesthetic throughout your journal. Content themes focus on a singular topic. Examples of content themed journals are dream journals, travel journals, and gratitude journals. There’s really no end to topics you can focus on. In my own practice, I tend to combine visual with the content themes. The journal shown above contains a lot of Buddhist imagery and the color blue. I have another journal that is done all in browns and black with a coffee visual theme. Images of coffee and coffee stains are found throughout the journal.
What themes do you use in your journals?
