Today I want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at one of the simplest but sneakiest ways to speed up your entire creative workflow inside Affinity: building your own custom studio.
As many of you know, I’ve been using Affinity pretty heavily for the past year, partly because I’ve been on the advisory team through Canva, helping them shape the next generation of tools for designers like us. And honestly? It’s been a blast. There’s something special about working with a team who genuinely cares about craft — not trends, not fluff, not whatever the algorithm thinks we should do — but actual, hands-on, real creative work.
One of the features I’m most excited about (and the one I show in today’s video) is the ability to build your own studio. This is a fully customised workspace that looks and behaves exactly the way you want it to. No extra clutter. No panel that haunts you but you never click. No 47 tools you haven’t touched since 2012.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT STUDIO PRESET IN AFFINITY
Affinity is the first design app to combine vector, pixel, and layout into a single space. That means I can draw a logo, tweak textures, mock up a page layout, and make adjustment, all without jumping between apps or watching my computer melt into a puddle. It feels fast. It feels intentional. It feels… dare I say… sizzly.
For my setup, I start with the Vector preset, because most of my world revolves around shape-building, Boolean magic, pen tool wizardry, and turning my messy sketches into clean vector goodness.
SETTING UP MY “MBJ SIZZLE” STUDIO IN AFFINITY
In the tutorial, I walk through creating my own custom studio, which I’ve lovingly named MBJ Sizzle because… of course I did.
I clone the Vector preset, give it my fluffy little head as the icon (mandatory), and then start stripping back anything I don’t use. Tools that see daylight once a year? Gone. Tools I live and breathe every day? Front and centre.
HOW TO CUSTOMISE YOUR TOOLBAR IN AFFINITY DESIGNER FOR FASTER, CLEANER DESIGN
Once the studio is created, I dive into the toolbar and start making it mine. The left-hand toolbar is where I keep the tools I reach for constantly — like the move tool, pen tool, pencil tool, Boolean tools, and anything that speeds up logo building or vector sketching.
Anything that slows me down or clutters the space gets booted. No apologies.
MY MOST-USED VECTOR TOOLS FOR LOGO WORK
Then we head up to the top toolbar, where I drag in my favourite shortcuts: Boolean operators, align tools, flip tools… basically everything I rely on when building shapes at speed. These tiny adjustments add up to a workspace that feels like an extension of my hands instead of a chaotic garage of rusty tools I never touch.
As someone who spends a lot of time drawing, refining, and shaping marks, my workspace always centres around:
- Boolean operations
- Shape builder tools
- Pen + pencil tools
- Crop and adjustment brushes (for texture + cleanup)
- Basic alignment tools
These are the tools that help me think faster and design without getting stuck clicking around menus.
It’s simple: if I don’t use it weekly, it’s out.
If it saves me time or makes my workflow smoother, it stays.
HOW THIS CHANGES MY SKETCH-TO-VECTOR CREATIVE WORKFLOW
Affinity fits the way I naturally design… sketching in messy, punky shapes and then tightening them into clean vectors. The studio setup I show in this tutorial makes that transition much smoother.
A good workspace should support the way you think. That’s what MBJ Sizzle does for me.
MAKING IT YOURS
My hope with this video is that it inspires you to build a studio that fits your brain. A setup that helps you move quicker, think clearer, and spend more time creating instead of clicking around. Affinity gives us the freedom to shape our space, and once you do, the work feels different. Lighter. Faster. More… you.
If you want to see exactly how I put the MBJ Sizzle studio together, give the video a watch. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube for more Affinity tips. I’m having way too much fun with this software not to share it.
You can also check out what the Affinity team is up to here. Let me know if you build out your own studio – I’d love to see it in action.
-MBJ
