The Top Three Things You Need to Start Your Surface Pattern Design Business -

Many people dream of creating a surface pattern design business or businesses in the craft field like sublimation, Cricut or Silhouette files, Glowforge files, or printables. As my own design business has flourished over the last 14 years, I have turned part of my focus to helping other designers get started in this field.

Today I want to focus on surface pattern design since this was one of my early goals when I was a new designer.

Many of the things that I’m going to cover today are also in my New Designer Checklist. You can get this free download by going to my Instagram and following me at @carinagardner. If you comment “CHECKLIST” on the most recent post, I’ll send you a PDF link in your DMs.

This checklist contains six practical points to help you get started. Today I’m going to talk to you about three of those.

The Top Three Things You Need to Start Your Surface Pattern Design Business

Tools

1. Tools are everything. In Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” he says to “sharpen your saw.” Abraham Lincoln said, “If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” Both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Covey understand that tools save you time and money. A sharpened saw or axe will make the work go quicker.

I’ve been known to tell people to hold off on joining my Design Suite program until they have purchased the right tools.

One example of something I do not skimp on is computer memory. I will pay extra to put more memory into my laptop because I know it will save me hundreds of hours of time because the computer will go faster.

Software

2. I’m a huge advocate of the Adobe software. I have been using the software for over 20 years and it is the gold standard. While there are a lot of new programs out there, none will help you create your final production pieces. Do the hard work and learn Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and it will serve you well as a professional designer.

Other tools like Procreate can be used in conjunction with the Adobe Software (many of our courses reference Procreate and many of our Design Suite members use it). However, we have to finalize all design work in Photoshop or Illustrator before sending it on to it’s final destination.

I get a lot of resistance to this because many people really emphasize that the other programs are so much cheaper. Have you heard the saying, “you get what you pay for”? This is certainly the case with design software.

A Plan

3. Finally, you need a plan for selling your designs. I talk about this in my Design Bootcamp because it is such a vital piece of making money as a designer. This was one lesson I personally learned.

I find that many people go into design with the mentality that they are just going to make what they like. Creating a plan for who you are designing for will make your design work stronger and help you build for the final production stages.