Last year, I wrote a post to celebrate my first year as a surface pattern designer. I enjoyed writing the post and it made me realize how much I was able to accomplish in one year. I am now celebrating my second year as a surface pattern designer and I wanted to share what I worked on this past year and to celebrate the wins!
I have to say that the love that I had for surface pattern design hasn’t gone away. I absolutely love it as much as I did upon discovering it. Although, balancing it with a full-time job and being a mom is still a challenge. This was also a year for me both personally and professionally outside of designing. It was one of the best years but also one that was quite challenging. I’m glad I had an artistic outlet to get me through it all.
I am learning that becoming a surface pattern designer is also filled with many challenges. There are so many directions that you could get pulled into with it that I have to be very careful if I want to make actual progress with it and I have to protect the little time that I have available.
Here is my year in review! Let’s see how I did. (My year starts in March because I already covered January 2022 and February 2022 in my previous blog post.
March 2022
So I did it! Last year, I said I felt like the only person who didn’t take Bonnie Christine’s Immersion course. I decided it was time to invest in her course. One of the things that convinced me it was the right move was after spending way too much time Googling how to do something in Adobe Illustrator and I didn’t have that type of time to waste. I realized that her course would be a great library of how illustrator works for surface pattern designers and the time savings would outweigh the investment. I was right. It was truly worth every penny.
April 2022
I had a rare and chance opportunity to take an in-person class at Winterthur Gardens with a nationally known expert in creating cyanotypes, Sarah Rafferty of Atwater Designs. It was such a beautiful day and I will never forget the experience. Sarah was so generous in sharing her knowledge and the entire experience was amazing. I immediately fell in love with the cyanotypes process too! I purchased supplies to make cyanotypes and it is now something I can add to my surface pattern design business.
On my Instagram (@pattern_babe) you can see some of my first cyanotypes from the class.
May 2022
I took a work trip to New Orleans, my first time visiting! I took the Amtrak train there so I had a plenty of time to reflect on my art and sketch on my iPad. The trip was inspirational to me and I came home excited about my art and all that I can do with it.
On my Instagram (@pattern_babe) you can see one of my favorite photos from my trip to New Orleans!
June 2022
June was a hard month for me. We had a family vacation planned at the beach but I was in bed the first couple of days on our vacation suffering my second pregnancy loss. My heart was completely broken and shattered. It is a pain you never want to know or feel again in your body and heart. I recolored a previous design on my iPad while lying in bed recovering. It is special to me. I am hoping it helps someone else. It is a pregnancy loss awareness design with the baby pink and blue. I hope to license it or donate some of the proceeds from sales from it to one of the organizations that have helped me.
July 2022
I was able to turn a few of my designs into swimwear. I purchased two of them and wore them during the summer. They were very flattering too!
It was nice to wear something unique and that was so meaningful to me. I now think designs can heal. You can purchase this swimsuit in my shop and help spread awareness about pregnancy loss and how you can support those who have experienced a loss!
August 2022
I signed up for my second Make it in Design Summer School!
I signed up for all 6 design briefs, participating in all 3 tracks. This forced me to dive deep into my design work again. The trends once again challenged me outside of my comfort zone and to try new things! I even ended up with more than the 6 designs through experimentation, I ended up with several more.
Also as part of the design challenge I learned how to create my first bayadere stripe pattern and I have to say, it turned out pretty well!
September 2022
I submitted all of my Summer School designs (see below). My designs still didn’t win or get featured but I was still proud of the growth in my work since my first summer schooI challenge! I also started a new job related to my full-time career outside of surface pattern design so it was a busy month for me! In addition to all that, I signed up for Stacie Bloomfield’s Leverage Your Art course and focused a lot of my time on learning for the rest of this month.
October 2022
In late September, I added over 40 new designs to my Spoonflower shop. I spent most of the month of October adjusting to my new job and continuing the Leverage Your Art course. I officially graduated from Leverage Your Art in late October!
November 2022
I officially released my Alpaca Traditions and first mini collection on social media. I also made some design corrections and updated my collection sheets using Adobe InDesign.
December 2022
I ordered stickers for the new holiday alpaca design and they are now available in my shop. I also created holiday gift tags with my mini collection that you can now download for free on my website and use for gift wrap! I can’t believe it’s been another year (well almost, in February 2023 it will officially be two years!) One cool way I may officially celebrate in February is to go to PrintSource NYC just to walk the floor and get an idea of what an actual trade show may be like.
I’m really excited for the new year and all that it will bring. I feel much more knowledgeable going into the new year after completing so many intense and amazing courses! I’m looking forward to more great things to come and I can’t wait to participate in my second Make it in Design Winter School soon!
Overall, year two as a surface pattern designer has been great!
Thanks for reading! You can continue to follow my journey, follow me on Instagram @pattern_babe or subscribe to my newsletter)! I’d love to hear from you and learn what your journey may be in surface pattern design too!
Don’t forget to grab your free download! A beautiful printable weekly planner sheet!
6 responses to “Recap of my second year as a surface pattern designer”
So, you took many classes and you feel that you are finally gaining some traction? I was very interested in taking Bonnie Christine’s course and just couldn’t come up with the money in time. Now I am watching the 5 day The Artist’s Side Hustle that is leading up to her Leverage your Art course. Would you say that either of those are better than the other if I only was able to pay for 1. Or is it best to save up and do both courses? Or do you have some alternative advise? Thank you in advance for any help. I really enjoy your stories and I am sorry for your loss. I had a few grandchildren that didn’t make it and is is truly heartbreaking.
Take care.
Angi H
Hi Angi,
I know it is tough to afford both courses. I was able to test both out by being in their memberships first before deciding on both courses. I don’t think they have that opportunity now which I think makes it an even harder decision. Both Bonnie Christine’s Immersion and Stacie Bloomfield’s courses are very comprehensive, they are both extremely successful and are engaging instructors. Bonnie is inspiring and Stacie is motivating, both make it seem very attainable to reach their level of success. For me both courses led me to gaining more confidence and I still refer back to class material from time to time. I think it’s hard to pick one since both are different. Bonnie’s focuses on Illustrator, and I thought her course was fun. She gets you so fired up about being a surface pattern designer and I just loved it! Stacie is even more energetic and gets you excited to be an artist, her course is focused a lot on licensing your art and maximizing where you show your art. To see what you want to do first and to see if learning Illustrator is going to benefit you. Stacie has some basic tutorials that may get you started and demonstrates editing in Photoshop and Procreate I believe. I found her membership Creative Powerhouse Society had nice short tutorials too. However, I am still surprised by how much there is to still learn after both courses. Bonnie prepares you for using Illustrator but now I work a lot in Procreate and I am trying Photoshop. There are artists who use Affinity too. Then there’s learning about lettering/typography, finding a niche and learning about your market. Stacie helps you get started with the later (but not much on lettering) but I found there’s still a lot to learn beyond that. What I have found is surface pattern design is expensive and you have to be willing to invest but also know when to stop taking courses and just learn on your own too or find local courses in your community or even the library. Some libraries have a Creative Bug subscription. I got started with Procreate by taking a one hour class at the local library, so look offline for learning opportunities too! I also do the occasional local painting classes. I actually love in person classes better than online and I wish to do more of that. So sorry for your grand-babies losses. That must have been hard. Thank you for your kind words. Art definitely has helped me during those difficult times. Good luck!
Stephanie
Would love to know if you think LYA by Stacie is a good practical course that can actually help organize yourself as a print designer license art/find the companies/contact? and deals and also if it covers products and wholesale?
Hi Ana,
Thanks for reading my post! I think LYA is great course if you are just getting started and need some direction on how to make money from your art. It is very strong on the licensing and pitching your art side. There is some information on creating products and manufacturing but it just covers the surface. I found depending on the product that manufacturing can be very complex. If you are doing tea towels or stickers you may find the information helpful in LYA. If you are doing something more complex, you may need to expand your knowledge beyond the course. I am in the process of manufacturing a product now and it’s taking me a while to understand everything involved!
I started LYA and asked to leave after the 14 day trial. I was really bummed to leave, and enjoyed the little bit of my first two weeks. I signed up on a payment plan though, and felt too uncertain financially with where I’m at with my art to continue. I MAY go back after I feel more consistent and confident in my art practice. I bought a couple of kindle books. Lisa Condrons Art Inc. book is $1.99 when I recently purchased it. I would suggest; keep your eyes out for the generosity that is online through all of the tutorials on YouTube, and the kindle books I’ve bought are very comprehensive so far, if you’re feeling like you need to budget. I really didn’t want to pass up LYA, but I’ve found very similar content for way less $$. Granted I’ve only delved into 2 of LYA modules. I wasn’t interested in all of her modules, another reason I couldn’t justify the price tag. Bonnie Christine sells an art licensing book for $50, & that’s another resource that I’m assuming is saving me hundreds over taking LYA! I was most interested in that module, but I could not help but think of how else I could use that $$ towards my business start up. I love Stacie’s energy, enthusiasm, and humor. I also felt like for $2,000, I’d like support for more than 10 weeks, & LYA would have eventually tried to upsell me a membership that also feels expensive with where I am in my journey. I love Liz Koehler Browns The Studio, and she delves into a lot for way less $. Of course her membership has gone up since I was a part of that. She teaches Affinity Design, though, which is way less $$ than Illustrator, & equally awesome results.
Thanks Christine for sharing your course and reading recommendations! 🙂 I understand the fear in spending so much on courses! It’s funny you mention LYA because on a whim I decided to take it again as an alumni this year!! I like her story of how she built her business from the ground up and her resiliency during difficult times and her authentic approach to teaching. For me it is worth it at the alumni price, but I am not spending a lot on courses anymore, so this was my little splurge on myself. I found I do need to pay a little bit for a course, to keep myself accountable. I still have courses I need to go back and start though! Courses are not just a money investment but a time investment too! You definitely want to make sure it is a good fit for you with time and money. Good luck! It sounds like you are being resourceful and doing what works for you.