Three Mindset Hacks for Surface Pattern Design
This week, let’s dive into my favorite mindset hacks about surface design.
What is surface design, you ask?
Surface design is all around you. This may be the first time you are hearing the official term. But stop for a minute and look around you. I bet you’ll see 6 or more designs on everyday objects around you right now:
the carpet below your feet
the design on your mobile phone case
the illustration or pattern on the cover of your journal
the wrapping paper you picked out recently
the duvet cover and sheets on your bed
the birthday card you’re about to send to a friend
If you’ve always wanted to put your designs on fabric or stationary or start your own creative business, read on. I’m sharing my favorite mindset hacks that will help you get started or build on your success as a surface pattern designer.
Mindset Hack #1: Embrace the tech – you can do it!
Technology is getting easier all the time. It’s incredible to think about all of the things we do with our smartphones. It’s like having a computer in your pocket. And your actual laptop, desktop or iPad is even more powerful and functional.
Many designers still create their sketches and designs by hand. Personally, I still draw by hand. Then we bring that artwork into Adobe Illustrator to produce final artwork.
Most companies in the surface design industry require Illustrator files and you might wonder why. It’s because Illustrator turns your designs into vectors, individual anchor points and lines, that can be scaled infinitely without losing any quality.
Think about what happens when you enlarge or blow up a photograph. It gets blurry and out of focus, right? Illustrator solves this problem and creates files that can be enlarged without loss of quality. There is a step by step process to achieve this that I teach a few times a year in a free mini-course called, From Doodles to Dollars™. Sign up if you’d like to join the next class.
Mindset Hack #2: Keep it simple, you can always get fancy later
When you’re learning new skills, including how to make a repeating pattern in Illustrator, you need to remember that you’re dealing with a computer. Computers really like it if you follow the proscribed steps, in the right order, exactly. Without skipping any or adding any.
Often new students who are just learning how to create a pattern that repeats seamlessly, want to use a very complex piece of artwork. It’s actually more important to learn the steps and ignore the end results than the other way around. Once you’ve mastered the steps and can do them over and over again, you can get super fancy with your actual designs. But learning the steps comes first and if you keep it simple, it will be a whole lot less frustrating.
You’ll see, if you join us in the mini-course, that you can create beautiful patterns with just scribbles, dots, or random marks on the page. The important thing is to gain the confidence that no matter what design you want to create in the end, you can make it work because you know the steps to follow. That way, the tech moves to the background, it’s just a tool in your toolkit. And you can focus all your energy on the design itself. Doesn’t that sound good?
Mindset Hack #3: Enjoy the journey - it’s not a race!
Why are we in such a hurry anyway? Embracing your creativity and building a creative business that you love will take time. But every step along the journey can be joyful and exhilarating. Lean into it and remind yourself that this is not a race. The surface design industry is gigantic. I like to call it “ginormous”, both gigantic and enormous.
There is room for you and you’ll be more successful if you take the time to develop your signature style. That’s what makes you unique and different from what’s already out there. And that process of discovery takes time and lots of practice.
Every day along this journey is exciting. The early days, in particular, are great fun because you’re not under contract. There’s no pressure, no deadlines, no revisions to deal with yet. And everything you do is fresh and new. You’ll cherish this early work and it may in fact contain some of your favorites.
Please remember these 3 mindset hacks:
1. embrace the tech
2. keep it simple
3. enjoy the journey
Before I wrap up, me share a quick story - about the similarities between learning surface design and learning to ride a bike.
Do you remember that yearning, that desire that you had when you wanted to learn how to ride a bike? You wanted the freedom that it brought to go meet your friends. Or to stay out later because you could get home by yourself. It meant a new level of independence.
You’ll also remember that it was a process. That process began with a tricycle, then you moved on to a bike with training wheels. When the training wheels came off, you still, at least initially, had a parent or a sibling or a friend running alongside you until you got your balance.
Even when they let go, you had to practice a lot. You’d fall down, get a few scrapes. But you kept at it because you could taste that sense of freedom that conquering it would bring.
As you get started or continue on your surface design journey, remember this bike analogy. Don’t let go of the handle bars right away. And enjoy the journey.
I hope you’ll join me for my weekly Facebook LIVE on Wednesday. I’m live every Wednesday at noon pacific time on my Facebook page, Anne LaFollette Art, to talk about this week’s blog and to answer your questions. I look forward to seeing you there.
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.
