7 Ways to Make Money From Your Doodles & Designs in 2020
A few years ago I discovered the world of surface pattern design and I’ve never looked back! As a creative person all of my life, I could not believe that this big wide world of surface pattern design existed. I worked in retail in a corporate job for 25 years and had never even heard a whisper about it, even though it is a very lucrative and fun field.
Fast forward to today and I’m running my own business teaching surface pattern design and selling my own designs!
The field of surface pattern design is vast and diverse which means there are lucrative options for almost everyone. Let me share seven of the top ways that you can make money and let you in on some of my pro tips to shorten your learning curve.
Let’s start by explaining this complicated sounding name because it’s actually super simple.
What Is Surface Pattern Design?
Look around you right now. I bet you’ll see at least six different patterns on everyday objects around you:
· The carpet under your feet
· Wallpaper in a room of your house
· The pattern on your shirt or dress or socks
· The cover on your notebook or journal
· Throw pillows on your couch
· Some or maybe all of your scarves
· The embroidered fabric on a favorite chair
· And the list goes on and on and on
A surface design is any piece of artwork that is applied to a surface.
The surface can be anything that would look nice with a design on it.
The artwork can be a repeating pattern, illustration, graphic design, hand lettering, woodblock printing, even simple doodles and organic shapes.
Knowing that, you can start to imagine what a gigantic industry surface design actually is!
The reason I’m so passionate about surface pattern design is because of the many different ways YOU can make money at it - no matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned creative. Let’s get specific.
Seven Ways To Make Money:
Work for yourself:
If your goal is to work for yourself, surface pattern design can create income either by giving you a platform to create your own business or by enhancing your existing business.
#1 Sell Direct, online
You’ll create an online store to sell your surface pattern designs. If you love the idea of owning your products and having direct contact with your customers, selling directly on your own website might be the right path for you.
The advantage here is the connection that you have with your customers. You can completely control and curate the shopping experience. Just think of the beautiful details you can include in the shipping box such as a personalized note, special tissue paper that you’ve designed, or a ribbon in one of your brand colors.
You’ll need to set up a website and sell directly to your audience. You can use Shopify or Squarespace or any website with a selling platform.
#2 Sell Direct, in-person
You can sell your merchandise at craft fairs, cooperative spaces, local markets, and street fairs. This is a wonderful and fun way to get out and meet your customers, talk to them about what they like, and interact with them as you get your feet wet in the industry. You can also get your merchandise in retail spaces in your area.
Selling direct or online can be difficult and overwhelming if you have never done it before. I have cram-jammed my course with pro tips, industry secrets, and my own strategies for starting your own business.
#3 License Your Designs
If you’ve always dreamed of having fabric with your own unique designs on it, this path is for you. Large companies are always looking for new patterns to purchase and print on their merchandise. As a licensed designer, you’ll have a contract with the company that requires you to develop fabric collections either seasonally or multiple times per year, depending on the agreement. Your licensing payment is generally calculated based on the wholesale sales of your fabric designs. Licensing fees are in the 3-6% range.
Licensing is a great option for artists who love to design in collections, which are a series of coordinated patterns that mix and match and coordinate well together. Creating beautiful and saleable collections is an art in and of itself and there’s nothing like the feeling of seeing your designs come to life on fabric.
Licensing opportunities are also available in other industries, including the stationery industry, where your collection might include:
· Notebooks
· Notepads
· Stationery
· Greeting cards
· Pencil wrappers
· Paperweights
· Candleholders
· And more
You can license the same design in multiple industries if you carefully structure your contracts to specify each industry separately. There are so many exciting options within the overall category of “licensing.”
Enhance, Diversify and Expand Your Business:
As a creative, I love to learn new techniques and apply them to my existing business. Learning surface pattern design can enhance your business in a few (profitable!) ways.
Are you already in a creative business? Surface pattern design can help you put down some deep roots in your business by reaching more people in more ways than you have before.
Since you are a creative person, it’s highly likely that you have artwork - even doodles hanging around- that will beautifully lend themselves to surface design. Use that to your advantage!
Here’s are some incredible ways surface pattern design can expand your business now, or as you grow in the field:
#4 Enhance Established Product Offerings
Here’s a quick example:
One of my students, Sharon Hoppe, has a very successful textured rolling pin business. Using her newly acquired surface design skills, she enhanced and expanded her business. Her rolling pins have gorgeous, intricate designs that emboss dough or fondant to make the most amazing cake decorations. Sharon now uses surface design to offer unique designs that she could have never created before. She uses her new skills to diversity and leverage existing design assets. This leads to more opportunities for additional income from a variety of sources.
#5 Diversify Product Offerings
Dylan Mierzwinski, a surface designer and friend, recently got licensed and presented her first fabric collection at Quilt Market. She went way beyond quilts: She made some adorable backpacks, coasters and a handful of other products to showcase her pretty patterns.
If you put your designs on paper or other hard goods, you have an opportunity to print on all kinds of merchandise. Learning surface pattern design can make it easier and faster (and possibly more fun!) to get your designs into the lives of more people.
For example, I absolutely love to design my own wrapping paper and it’s one of my best sellers every holiday season. But the options don’t just stop there. My wrapping paper design can also lend itself to a series of greeting cards, notebook covers, or even stickers. There are many options.
#6 Expand Your Customer Base
When you are in business, you want to start small and continue to grow. Growing your customer base is important; it will help you increase your revenue and spread your art (and joy!) around the world. Surface design can easily help you do this by showcasing your art in a new way and expand your reach.
Once you enhance or diversify your offerings, your current customers will be interested to see what new products and designs you’re creating- and now they will have the potential to purchase more. They’ll want to buy things in sets, like a matching mug, notebook, and phone case. Or maybe create a set of those products with complementary or coordinating patterns.
Offering surface design products increases your ability to reach new customers as well. Changes in technology enable you as an artist and designer to put your artwork out into the world and sell your products much more easily than in the past. More people will see it and become fans, ultimately expanding your reach through different sales platforms like Etsy, society6, and spoonflower. Getting your art into the world in these ways breathes new life into your business, expands your reach and grows your customer base.
Work for others:
#7 Corporate or Freelance Work
It’s common for surface pattern designers to be self-employed artists, but a small number of corporate jobs do exist for surface designers. Google them and you will see what is available in your area. You’ll need to know Adobe Illustrator, which I teach in my course, step-by-step.
Most businesses cannot support a full-time surface designer, but they will hire a freelancer for a project or even commission a work from an artist to create their unique brand’s look and feel. You can look on Upwork or Fiverr.com for these types of opportunities.
If you’d like to learn about surface pattern design and how to make money from your artwork, sign up for my free LIVE workshop: From Doodles to Dollars.
Here are just a few of the things you’ll learn:
· The art of transforming your sketches into beautiful repeating patterns
· The secrets behind how to sell your work successfully
· The confidence to pursue your creative dreams by knowing what’s possible
Grab your spot. It’s fun. It’s FREE and you don’t want to miss it. Sign up TODAY! Class starts on Jan 9.
Remember,
It’s Never Too Late to Create
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
