Guides · Seasonal planner

White Friday design: a planner that works backwards from sale day

One key visual, four sizes and a week-by-week plan, so the price tag, the story and the window poster all look like the same shop.

Illustration of three paper shopping bags standing together on a dark surface in warm light, a cream bag at the front printed with a large terracotta percent sign, with sand and terracotta bags behind it and tissue paper rising from the top

White Friday design has a habit of happening at midnight, two days before the sale, while the discount is still being argued over in the group chat. The result is familiar. A red percent sign, five fonts and a price tag that disagrees with the Instagram post. This planner works backwards from sale day, so the whole campaign looks like your brand, from the story on a phone to the sticker on the bag.

The plan is the studio's view, drawn from the seasonal work we design. It assumes you already have a logo, colours and typefaces. If you don't, sort those out first. A sale is a poor moment to invent a brand.

Start with one idea, then resize it

A sale campaign needs one key visual. One layout, one way of showing the discount, one headline voice. Everything else is that idea at a different size. Shops that design each piece separately end up with a story, a post, a price tag and a window poster that look like four different companies having the same sale.

Diagram titled One idea, four sizes. The same layout, a terracotta circle with a percent sign above two text bars, appears on a tall story, a square post, a small price tag with an eyelet and a wide window poster, each labelled underneath — One idea, four sizes. The story, the post, the price tag and the window all come from the same layout.

Resizing is the cheap part once the idea exists. Inventing a new look for every format is the expensive part, and it is where most last-minute campaigns fall apart.

The White Friday design planner, week by week

Four weeks out Decide the offer. Which products, what discount, which dates, which channels. Design follows the offer. Check what the authorities in your market require before you advertise a discount, while there is still time to adjust.
Three weeks out Brief the designer. One page with the offer, the products, the sizes you need, the languages and a deadline for each piece. Our guide on how to write a design brief covers the basics.
Two weeks out Approve the key visual. Send one set of notes on the main layout, then let the designer roll it out. Changing the idea after the resizing starts costs time on every single piece.
Ten days out Send the print files. Tags, posters and stickers go first, since printers are often at their busiest in sale season. Our print-ready files piece covers what the printer will ask for.
Sale week Post on schedule. A teaser, the launch post and a last-day reminder, all ready as files, so nobody designs a story on a phone in the stockroom.
The week after Take it all down on time. Archive the files, note what sold, and keep the layout for next year.

Two weeks away and nothing started yet is a common position. Cut the kit to a post, a story and the price tags, approve the key visual within a day, and skip anything that needs a printer you haven't booked.

What goes in the kit

Screens

Instagram post and story
WhatsApp broadcast image
Website or app banner
Arabic and English versions of each

Shop

Price tags showing the old price and the new price
Window poster
Counter card
Bag sticker

Three rules for discount design

Make the number the hero
The discount is the one thing people read from across a mall corridor. Give it room and surround it with your own colours. A sale does not require a sudden switch to red.
Show the real price clearly
Old price and new price, legible, on every tag. Customers do the maths anyway, and a tag that looks evasive costs more trust than a small discount earns.
Write both languages properly
Arabic copy deserves its own layout, set with the same care as the English. Our Arabic font pairing guide explains how to make the two scripts sit together.

On screens, the same rules apply at thumbnail size. If your feed already has a fixed style, the sale posts should slot into it. Our Instagram branding tips show how to keep a grid looking like one company, discounts included.

Questions people ask

When should I start designing a White Friday campaign?

We suggest about four weeks before the sale, so the offer is settled before design starts and the print files reach the printer around ten days out. If you are later than that, cut the kit to a post, a story and price tags.

What should a sale price tag show?

The old price and the new price, large enough to read without picking the product up, in the same layout as the rest of the campaign. Check your market's current rules on advertising discounts as well.

Should a sale campaign use different colours from my brand?

In our view, no. Keep your brand colours and typefaces and let the discount number carry the urgency, so customers recognise the shop before they read the offer.

One idea, four sizes, and every tag down by the following week.

The Brandtastic team

See Social Media Content Design

Sources

Written by Brandtastic Design Studio.