Design and Workflow

2018 email design in review

A big trend is the shift towards using a design system for email campaigns.

A series of emails based on the same modular template design.

We attended our first Litmus Live conference last month in San Francisco. We came away with a lot learned, good chats, and having a lot of fun after hours with fellow email geeks! Once we got over the con hangover, we spent the last few weeks watching archived videos from Litmus Live Boston and London events. There were so many great presentations! Litmus has highlighted a few of them here.

A big trend we've noticed from what was presented is the shift towards using a design system for email campaigns. There were three presentations specifically around the approach. It's been a topic that has come up a lot this past year. We've also blogged about it ourselves, and even gave a talk on it. Below are some key takeaways from the presentations at Litmus Live.

Fixing Enterprise Email with Design Systems by Fabio Carneiro

"A design system is a collection of reusable elements governed by a set of standards." Watch video of talk

Email Design Systems by Crystal Ledesma

"It's predesigned, prebuilt, precoded, pretested; done in advanced so you don't have to focus on it again and again."

Creating Efficient Workflows with Modular Email Design by Jesse Blanner

"Modular email design - a system of interchangeable components (aka modules) and reusable patterns that can be combined to create email layouts."

Besides the workflow benefits, what's also great about this approach is that it makes it easier to adapt to email coding standards which are changing all the time (for the better). By having a framework for your emails, you can maintain your code and always send out emails that look great and engage all your readers.

Are you considering using modular design for your email templates? Check out our handy guide for getting started. And take your production workflow even further by making your template editable in Blocks Edit.

Photo of Ovi Demetrian Jr Ovi Demetrian Jr