Is your wall looking a bit bare? Could it use a splash of purposeful color? Maybe a creative calendar design will help you make the most out of 2016?
It’s challenging to design a monthly calendar from scratch. You need to come up with a design concept, lay out a monthly grid in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. Then painstakingly craft out the year with the correct dates, while adding creative elements that are inspiring. It’s no small task. Don’t worry though, we have you covered!
What you need is a professional calendar template—one that fits your design aesthetic, is fully editable, and easy to customize with your own branding. It will creatively inspire you throughout the whole year and help you with at a glance planning.
And if you're a freelance graphic designer, then one of these templates could be just what you need to creatively market your business (or those of your clients) this year. You can also use a calendar to add your goals to, hang on your wall, and track all your 2016 targets.
Customizable, Creative Design Options
We have a creative assortment of calendar templates featured here from GraphicRiver. Each with high quality, inspiring designs. They are all purposefully crafted for monthly and yearly at-a-glance planning. They’ll help you make the most of 2016.
Use a monthly wall calendar to track your most important dates, inspire your team, and make sure you hit all your big milestones this year. These calendar templates are fully editable, so just add your logo, insert your company photos, and tweak the color scheme to match your brand. Then you’re ready to print it out and hang it on your wall—or deliver it to your customers!
There are a number of creative template styles to choose from, such as:
- minimalist
- modern
- abstract
- conceptual
- photo-driven
- colorful
Which one fits your aesthetic preference? Browse through all the creative design styles below or jump over to GraphicRiver to check out more creative calendar template options.
Creative Monthly Calendar Templates
Creative calendar ideas are expressed visually, with a compelling mix of organized date fields and creative features like photos, colors, design elements, and fonts. There is no limit to the inventive styles that calendars can be designed as. Here are twelve creative monthly calendar templates to choose from:
1. Modern Circle - 2016 Monthly Calendar Template
This is a high quality monthly calendar template with an abstract creative feel. It’s designed in an elegant minimal style and will add interest to any room. InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop files are included. It’s customizable and you can change both color versions easily. It’s print ready, CMYK, at 300DPI, and completely vector scalable.
2. Minimal Monthly Calendar Template 2016 - 2017
This 2016 monthly calendar template is designed in a creative, clean, minimal style. It’s got a get down to work and dig-in creatively theme. The paragraph and text styles are easy to edit. You can swap your images in, add your logo, use your corporate fonts, and customize it to your brand. It’s made in Adobe InDesign in US Tabloid and A3 format with 14 pages of layered templates.
3. Flat Office 2016 Calendar Template
Bold, modern, flat design, with simple icon illustrations, which looks great printed at large calendar scale. If you want to bring this web style to your office walls, then this is the calendar template for you. This 2016 calendar is designed at poster size in A3 and 11x17 inch (Tabloid) format, but can be scaled or adjusted to another paper size easily. This customizable monthly calendar is ready to print at high resolution, just add in your details. It comes with InDesign (INDD) and PDF files.
4. Colorful 2016 Monthly Calendar Template
Creative calendar ideas with great concepts set a design apart. This 2016 monthly calendar template is based on bright, colorful constellations, which is an intuitive visual concept. The design feels abstract and inspiring—like a colorful, planetary night sky. It’s creative, crafted in a minimalist style, and makes a great visual impact. It’s compatible with recent versions of InDesign, fully editable, and set up for easy customization with your brand details. It’s ready to print at high resolution and is designed with scalable vector graphics.
5. Photo Square Wall Calendar 2016
This is a clean, high impact, monthly wall calendar template for 2016. It sports a modern, square grid design. With smart object placeholders, it’s easy to add your photos into this Photoshop calendar template. It’s fully layered, highly organized, and completely print ready. You can customize it easily and make it your own in seconds!
6. 2016 Photo Poster Calendar Template
With this customizable monthly calendar template, you can readily adjust the grid for any year. All the styles in this photo calendar are in one file so you can just switch layers as needed. It includes PSD and INDD files and both light and dark styles. It’s set up for easy blending of design elements with your custom graphics and photos. It comes in two formats: portrait and landscape and is easy to resize to fit your needs.
7. Dark Abstract Monthly Calendar Template
Designed in a bold modern style, with engaging typography and dark abstract graphics, this monthly calendar template is made for those looking for something unique. The abstract images are included in the download and the calendar files come in INDD and PDF formats. It’s a poster sized design in A3 and 11×17 inch (Tabloid) format, but it can easily be customized to another paper size. It’s well organized and easy edit, just add in your details and you are ready to print!
8. Photo Calendar Template 2016 - 2017
This 2016 calendar template is set up with creative photo use that is well designed into the layout. It has a clean, modern style and can be customized to any color to fit your brand. Easily add additional pages or duplicate existing page layouts. The download includes extensive help files. And all the files are super organized with parent pages, text styles, and fully layered. The 14 page template is A3 page size and US Tabloid Page size. It’s set up in InDesign and is high resolution print ready.
9. 2016 Calendar Template Spectrum Swirl
This 2016 calendar template, has a unique, creative layout. It winds and curls, displaying every month of the year, like one long colorful abstract snake. You can readily add your brand and make use of extensive margins to add all your milestones for this year. It comes in vector Adobe Illustrator and EPS formats. It’s well organized and easy to customize with day, months, and additional layers. You can add your details and get this printed at any size to custom fit your needs.
10. Creative Photo Calendar Template for 2015 & 2016
A clean modern photography calendar may be what you’re looking for to make your company photos stand out. Or stick with the attractive images already included in this 2016 monthly calendar template. This creative calendar is A3 size and designed in Photoshop, including 12 PSD files in the download, one per month.
11. Modern Poster Wall Calendar Template 2015-2016 + Poster A3
This modern, creative calendar template is ready to be customized and printed. This poster size 2016 wall calendar covers all12 months and includes a cover page as well. It’s easy to add your own photos, logo, and customize the CMYK colors for your brand. The calendar files are designed in InDesign (INDD).
12. Flat Minimal, Colorful 2016 Monthly Calendar Template
This is a minimal calendar template designed in a flat style. It features modern typography and colorful gradients. It’s just the right design if you’re looking for a creative and elegant calendar. This poster calendar size is A3, which is 11×17 inch (Tabloid) format, but can be scaled or adjusted to another paper size easily. The download is set to high resolution, it's structured well, and comes with organized InDesign files. It’s ready to add your branding to and get printed!
How to Make the Most of Your 2016 Calendar
Here are five quick-fire tips on how to choose a creative calendar template, customize it to your band needs, use it to plan from and to motivate you this year.
1. Choose a Calendar That Inspires You
There are so many creative calendar ideas and designs to consider. Think about whether you want a highly conceptual calendar design, like the modern circle style calendar, which functions as much as wall art as planning tool? Or are you more inspired by large personal photos of your business inside a highly structured creative design, like the photo square calendar can deliver?
After considering your needs, narrow down your style preferences, then go with your gut and choose a calendar design that will inspire you throughout 2016.
2. Customize Your Calendar Template
After you’ve selected your calendar template, then it’s time to customize it. These calendars are editable in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator. If you have that software, then you can readily make changes to your calendar, adding your unique brand assets.
If you need help though, then you can work with a graphic designer. Most print shops will have one you can work with. They can take your photos, logo and brand ideas, edit your calendar, and get it professionally ready to print.
3. Add Your Important Milestones and Dates
In addition to inserting basic assets like your photos or logo, you may also want to add custom dates and milestones that are important to your business. Any custom information you want can be inserted into your monthly calendar template. Grab the calendar template files and customize them on your own or work with a pro to get it added.
4. Hang it Prominently in Your Office
There are a number of advantages to a paper-based monthly calendar. It doesn’t use electricity and there’s no hard drive to fail. Also, it can give you a psychological boost. As you track and cross off milestones with an “x,” you get that feeling of satisfaction that is hard to mimic with online tools.
Choose a prominent spot to place your calendar. The right wall calendar adds a purposeful, creative element to your office. It’s as much decorative art as it organization tool. It’s equal parts inspiration and function. If you work from home or the company office, then place it near your desk. Ideally, it should hang where you can see it easily and reach out and add appointments to—without anything getting in the way.
5. Refer to Your Calendar Frequently
Your monthly calendar is a visual reminder. Your most important dates, appointments, and goals are there—ready for you to aim, fire, and accomplish. They are right in front of you at eye-level. You don’t need to access a digital tool to see it. You can readily refer to your calendar. It's easy to get in the habit of glancing at your calendar on a regular basis—using it to visualize and plan your day.
Any one of the creative calendar templates referenced in this article could be just what you need. Add your branding assets to these pro designs, customize your most important milestones, and you’re ready to print, ship, and get it hung on your wall!
