My RoadMap to become a Surface Pattern Designer
It's time to create a solid plan on how to achieve my biggest goal - earning a living with my art.
I’ve been creative my whole life but recently I discovered my love for patterns. It happened after my son was born and I had a bit of time to rediscover myself artistically. Now I have two little babies and a strong determination to start an art career that will give me more time freedom.
I have been considering becoming a surface pattern designer for a while now but I couldn’t make a final decision and fully dedicate myself to achieve it. What gave me the most needed push was taking part in a free workshop “The Art of Business: 7 Secrets in Surface Design” by Bonnie Christine.
Today I’m going to share with you my roadmap to becoming an independent surface pattern designer. It's loosely based on the “Path to Success” template that Bonnie shared during the mentioned workshop. I’ve been working as a creative in a different industry for a while and I’ve already created several patterns for my POD shop. As I'm not a complete beginner I could have skipped the first few stages from the template. However, I decided to keep all six stages and redistribute all my tasks between them. I think I may need additional motivation in the shape of rewards coming after each stage. The goal looks much more achievable when divided into many shorter and more “edible” bites too!
My time is very limited. The goal is to get my first income from patterns before my little daughter starts daycare. That gives me only 6 months to create a good portfolio and to pitch my designs to companies. Is it too ambitious? We'll see…
My roadmap
STAGE 1 - sprout - setting up a good foundation
DEADLINE: 3.03 - three weeks
Read “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon and make notes
Read “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert and make notes
One thing a day + habit tracker
Write my BIO
create a blog
Document my goals and journey
Buy “Show your work”, “Keep going”
Create one pattern
Gather inspiration for the first collection
REWARD: restaurant
MILESTONE 1: choose a brand name and logo (by 18.02)
MILESTONE 2: create a website and Instagram account
REWARD: pottery painting
STAGE 2 - sprout - sharing my work
DEADLINE: 1.04 - one month
Read “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon and make notes
Read “Art Inc” by Lisa Congdon and make notes
Create the first collection
Work on my signature style/styles
Creating regularly (3 times a week)
Posting regularly (at least 3 times a week)
Research mailing list
Create a mailing list
Make newsletter templates
Create a potential clients list
REWARD: ordering teas from Teelandia
MILESTONE 3: refining my signature style/styles
MILESTONE 4: create at least 50 patterns in total
REWARD: buying new acrylic paints
STAGE 3 - bud - starting passive income
DEADLINE: 1.05 - one month
FINANCIAL GOAL: make a bit of income
Read “Art Money Success” by Maria Brophy and make notes
Read “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt and make notes
Putting my patterns on POD sites: RedBubble and Teepublic
Setting up a Spoonflower account
Post my designs to Spoonflower
Making a little income from art
Research on portfolios
Creating a portfolio (at least 3 collections, 10 designs each, that I'm happy with - one per week)
Sharing my process at least 3 times a week
Sending out the first newsletter
REWARD: SPA treatment
MILESTONE 5: Create 3 collections
MILESTONE 6: Meeting with Karine
REWARD: bath, mask, relax
STAGE 4 - root - contacting brands
DEADLINE: 1.09 - three months
FINANCIAL GOAL: earn at least 1K a month
Read “Marketing Playbook” by Lisa Jacobs and take notes
Read “Style Your Brand” by Fiona Humberstone and take note
Filling a list of brands - potential clients
Create Pitch tracker
Create templates for customer e-mails
Research: pitchbooks
Create a pitchbook
Research contracts
Contact at least 20 brands
Setting up Etsy with Spoonflower products
Taking part in 3 Spoonflower challenges
Setting up Tictoc and starting posting
Setting up Twitter and starting posting
Setting up a Facebook page
REWARD: one-day trip
MILESTONE 7: licence/sell a collection
MILESTONE 8: start selling on Etsy
REWARD: buying new art supplies
STAGE 5 - bloom - extending my art business
DEADLINE: 1.02 - six months - one year since starting
FINANCIAL GOAL: earn at least 5K a month (by the end of the year)
Read “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin and take notes
Read “Your Best Year Ever” by Michael Hyatt and take notes
Read “Launch” by Je Walker and take notes
add more streams of income (at least 6 in total, like Etsy, Skillshare, digital products, Notion templates, printable and in-person workshops)
Take part in Spoonflower challenges weekly
Licence at least 3 collections
Creating art course (for example on Skillshare or Domestica)
REWARD: weekend trip
MILESTONE 9: attend a trade show
MILESTONE 10: create a shop on my website
REWARD: the biggest reward
STAGE 6 - Flourish
Deadline 1.02.2026 - two years since starting
FINANCIAL GOAL: earn at least 100K a year
The rewards after each stage and pair of milestones should help me relax and stay motivated.
The financial goals mentioned in later stages may be unrealistic. There are not many surface pattern designers who share their income openly so it was hard to judge what’s possible and what is not. According to many successful designers, it took them around 2 years to replace their full-time income with their art business. My plan to get to 5K per month in just a year might be too ambitious.
After completing each stage, there will be a new post on my blog with a summary and an update on my plan. Keep your fingers crossed!
PS. The mentioned workshop by Bonnie Christine was promoting her famous “Immersion” course. I was considering signing up. After reading the list of modules and some reviews, however, I decided to skip it this time. A big part of the course focuses on Adobe Illustrator which I already know well enough for my needs. Also, my art styles would work better as rasters (more on it in my post on ART STYLES).
It's such a big investment of time and money too. I’m afraid it would be hard for me to devote enough time and energy to the course right now when I have a newborn baby at home. I didn't want the additional pressure on top of my internal one.
I will start on my own and learn from free resources and workshops focused on a specific skill or topic. If it is not enough and in a year I think I could still benefit from the Immersion course I will reconsider it (registration is open only once per year).
