Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Melissa Lee. I'm a professional illustrator
and surface designer. And some of my absolute
favorite things to make are patterns. I first learned how to make a technically
repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator back in 2015, right here on Skillshare. I now have about seven years of experience at making patterns
and pattern collections. About three years
of experience at submitting a surface
design portfolio, and two years of experience at being a licensed
fabric designer. If you're doing the math
on that and thinking, Huh? It sure took her a while to start actually making money
from her pattern work. Well, you're not wrong. There are a few
reasons for that. Like, for example, my various
day jobs keeping me busy, life in general,
getting in the way, making classes on Skillshare, taking up a lot of my time. But also the hard truth
is that I was getting in my own way. Two things that I see over and over again that cause budding
surface designers, including myself, to
stagnate and lose momentum are collections
and portfolios. Specifically, the
idea that they have to be absolutely perfect in every single way before
you should start sharing your work or
submitting your portfolio. Because I was so focused, really obsessed with the idea
that my portfolio needed to look a certain way
and it needed to follow every single piece
of advice I'd learned to a T. I wasted a lot of time on feeling discouraged
and overwhelmed, and most importantly, on not showing or submitting my work
like I should have been. When I finally decided
that enough was enough, and I actually started
to submit my work, I landed a dream licensing
deal within a year. My goal with this class is to share with you everything
that I've learned over the years regarding pattern collections and
surface design portfolios, through taking dozens
of classes myself, and from actual practical
learned experience. And trust me, I
have learned a LOT. In my first-class
on pattern design, I focused on the
technical side of creating a repeating pattern
in Adobe Illustrator. So it is a very
demo heavy class, whereas this class is lecture-based and
focuses on the dos, don'ts, and myths of pattern
collections and portfolios. My hope for this
class is that it can help you to avoid the sort of stagnation that I experienced on my own journey to
becoming a surface designer. I want you to leave this
class feeling motivated to share your work and to
continue creating patterns. So let's get started!
2. My Timeline: Like many people can relate. I have always loved drawing and any kind of arts and crafts. Growing up. art classes where the fun classes
in school for me, and that never changed all the way up through
college where I majored in studio art,
and beyond that to now. But it wasn't until
I learned about surface design and how to make patterns that I really thought I could make a
living out of illustration. I had never before felt so excited or motivated to
succeed at a creative career. I had approximately a
truckload of determination, [laughs] and luckily, that
ultimately served me well, but I had some road
bumps along the way. So I want to show you a more detailed timeline of
my surface design journey. In spring of 2015, I found Skillshare
and I learned how to make a repeating pattern
in Adobe Illustrator. I quickly fell in love
with making patterns. And then I spent about three years taking
more pattern design classes, making patterns and
collections here and there, learning
Illustrator but not using it consistently enough to really get
comfortable in it, which is why it took
me three years. In 2018, I made the
first collection that I felt really
represented me and my style. And then I made two more. So in 2019, I spent
a ton of time making a perfect portfolio and getting it printed so that I could finally start sending
it out to companies. I spent a good amount
of time researching companies I wanted
to pitch to and started sending out
both a physical printed portfolio and/or a digital portfolio via
email in the summer of 2019. In October of the same year, I went to the fall Quilt
Market in Houston, Texas and met with a few different
fabric companies so that I could show
them my portfolio. I didn't get a licensing deal there like I had
dreamed I might. So I spent a good month or so feeling pretty discouraged
and sorry for myself. But I eventually
picked myself back up and started submitting again. Despite my butt hurt
feelings [laughs], going to fall Quilt Market was a wonderful
experience and all of the nos that I did receive there, and after via e-mail, we're incredibly kind
and encouraging. So don't let my experience discourage you if you
also want to try that. I discovered the company, Riley Blake Designs,
at the trade show and I fell in love with
their curation and their overall vibe
pretty much immediately. And they quickly became one of my top three fabric
company choices. So naturally, they were one of the first places
that I submitted work to after I got home and
started submitting again. A few months passed
by with no response, and I assumed it was another no. C'est la V, I thought, I'm
used to nos by now. I planned to resubmit to them and some other companies
as soon as I had new work. Then in May of 2020, I got an email from Riley
Blake's Director of Design, asking if I was
still interested in signing on with them as
the new fabric designer, I was like, "I am absolutely
still interested. Yes, please!" I naturally was very emotional and had a happy cry about it. So in July of 2020, I signed my first
licensing deal with Riley Blake designs.
From day one, my goal was to get
my pattern work on to quilting fabric
and everything else after that feels like a bonus. I really wanted to get back into sewing, and being
a fabric designer has seriously motivated me
like nothing else ever could. I now consider myself a quilter, if a very inexperienced one, and it's been an absolute
joy and a blast. It just goes to
show that you never know when you might get a yes. The timing may not be
right immediately, but it could be in a few months. So be patient and keep trying. So anyway, my first
fabric collection didn't actually come out
for another 15 months. It depends on the company
and industry, really, but a year from when the
art is accepted to when the product ships is not uncommon within the
fabric industry, which means that I didn't get my first licensing royalty
check until October of 2021. I didn't feel confident enough in my work to start
pitching it to companies until late 2018 because I wasn't
consistently making patterns and improving my skills through practice for
those four years. And then it took me
another six or so months to create a perfect portfolio. I use my portfolio not
being completed to my high standards
as an excuse to put off submitting my work for much longer
than I should have. It took me five years from when I first started
dreaming about this career to when I landed
my first licensing deal, and over six years
to when I received my first licensing
royalty check. Now, I don't want you
to think that I'm ashamed of my timeline.
I'm not at all. I'm actually really
proud of the fact that, despite it taking so long, I never fully gave up on it. I had my moments, my days, and sometimes months, of feeling discouraged and not
creating artwork. But I had so much passion and perseverance that I
eventually made it happen. There is zero shame in that, and if your timeline ends up
looking similar to mine, or if you're already at year three or four and you feel like you haven't
made much progress. That's okay. You're not a failure. I think it's good to be aware of the possibility of it
taking a long time, I just don't want
you to think that it HAS to take that long for you. I have so many artist friends who found success
much more quickly, some even within six months, so the possibilities
are endless. Your story doesn't have to
take as long as mine did, but I hope you feel
encouraged by it nevertheless.
3. PI: Why Design In Collections?: So why design in collections
in the first place? Well, first of all, collections are
the cornerstone of industries such as fabric, stationary and paper
crafts, and home decor. So designing and collections
opens up your work to so many opportunities that it might not have
gotten otherwise. Even though not all industries necessarily require collections, art directors can
easily pick and choose prints from your
collection lineup. Offering your work in sets of
themes gives the end-user, client, or art director a well-rounded view
of who you are as an artist and also helps them to better recognize your
abilities as an artist. Designing in
collections helps you, the artist, to develop your
skills in so many ways. Through designing collection
after collection, you are essentially forced
to understand color, complexity, composition,
and balance, which in turn allows for a very cohesive and
polished presentation. It's also just really
fun and rewarding. It's so satisfying to see a beautiful set of artwork that goes so perfectly together. It gives you the unique
opportunity to tell a story and infuse
meaning into your work. Now that we understand
the benefits of working in collections,
let's talk how.
4. PI: The Dos Don'ts and Myths of Designing in Collections: There are a lot of options when it comes to creating
pattern collections, and there aren't as many hard
set rules as you may think. There's a lot of conflicting
information out there, which honestly, in my mind, just further supports
the fact that there are no hard set rules and that there are always
exceptions to most, if not all, pieces of
advice you may receive. Naturally, people
give advice based on their own experiences and what
has worked best for them, so since there are
so many different experiences that
people have had, it makes sense that there
are some differing ideas out there about what
works and what doesn't. Let this be encouraging rather
than discouraging, though, because really
what that means is that there are so many
different ways to succeed as an artist and, specifically, as
a surface designer. There isn't just one path with one set of rigid rules that you have to follow in order to get your work seen or licensed. Now, I definitely
understand if this news feels somewhat frustrating
or overwhelming to you, because having a
set of guidelines can be so incredibly helpful, and I doubt that I would be
where I am today if I hadn't followed the wisdom and
guidelines set out by my mentors. It's not that there
are no best practices to follow in surface design. Just that most of them are more flexible than you might assume. I'm going to go over
some general guidelines for what makes a good
pattern collection. And then I'm going to
go over some reasons why some of these
guidelines are flexible. A pattern collection
typically includes 7 to 12 patterns based
on a theme or story. Anything less than that is
considered a mini collection. Collections usually
have a name, a logo, names for each pattern, and a short story, description,
or about the line. Well-balanced collections
generally include 8 to 18 colors. More on that later, though. It's not mandatory, but many industries require
multiple colorways. Since bolt fabric
is MY main squeeze, I have always made all of my pattern collections in at least two colorways
to begin with. Not only do you want
to make sure that each pattern has
enough contrast, but that the collection as a whole has enough
contrast as well. There should be a balance of
complex and simple designs. So collections should include some hero or focal point prints, some coordinates,
and some blenders, and I'll talk more about
those later on as well. Finally, there should
be a mix of small, medium, and large
scale patterns.
5. PI: Collection Size: Let's revisit
collection size first. A full pattern
collection typically includes 7 to
12 unique patterns. There seems to be a bit of
disagreement on whether seven or eight patterns
makes a full collection, but I've seen so
many collections that are made up of
only seven patterns, which are seemingly referred
to as full collections. So in my opinion, I think seven is more
accurate than eight. But your mileage may vary
on that and that's okay. However, a collection of six or fewer would definitely be considered
a mini collection. Something that I
see a lot of people stressing over is the question of whether or not they should always create full collections. I struggled with
this idea myself. I have made exactly four collections with 10
to 12 patterns each, and I do love how most
of them turned out, but in my experience, it has felt consistently
stressful and overwhelming to make that many
patterns in a collection all at the same time. I have found that I tend to get impatient when in the middle of creating a full collection. And I often find myself itching to move on
to another theme. I also found that sometimes I would rush patterns
because I really wanted to reach a certain
number of patterns in a collection so that I could
move on to another one. So over time, I realized that
it's better for me to have a strong mini collection than a large collection with some
weaker, rushed patterns. So what I've done is
I've transitioned to making mini collections
of three to five patterns. And then because I do
like to have a bunch of options for art directors
to pick and choose from, I will often revisit them weeks, or even months, later
and add to them. Or one time an art director
I worked with liked one of my mini collections and asked me to make a couple
more prints for it. So that's when I revisited
that particular collection. This workflow helps
me to be more prolific and feel much
less overwhelm. It also allows me to
have a wider variety of themes represented
in my portfolio more quickly than I
would have otherwise. Most importantly, though,
it's easier for me to start a collection when I
know I'll only be making a few patterns
versus 10 to 12. And starting is always
the hardest part for me. A piece of advice I like
to give is to look for the things that make
starting a project easier, even if just a little bit, and once you find them, hold onto those practices and incorporate them into your regular workflow. The trick is to
find what workflow works best for you
as an individual. I tried out making a
full pattern collection in month multiple times and found that doing that all the time was too
stressful for me. I feel much more settled and comfortable in
how I work now. Designing in
collections can also be very industry-dependent,
as I touched on earlier. So for example, if
your heart is set on either the fabric or
scrapbooking industries, It's a good idea to
design in collections, but many fabric companies are open to mini
collections as well. I go more into this later, but I secured a licensing deal
with a fabric company with a submission of
just five patterns plus one more that they
saw on my website. But that's still
only six patterns. That's still a mini collection. Creating a large collection
is not absolutely necessary, nor is it for everyone. It is the job of
an art director to see the potential in
a person's artwork, no matter how many patterns you've included in a collection.
6. PI: Is Having an Industry Focus Important?: Should you have an idea
of the end product or products to guide you to make
more cohesive collections? Or should you make patterns first and then decide
where they fit? This is a which comes first, the chicken or the
egg sort of question. In my opinion, I don't really think there's a
right or wrong answer. It's hard to say because
I do think studying one or two industries where
you want to see your work and deciding if they
warant collections or just standalone patterns and letting that be how you approach
making patterns. I think that that can
be really helpful. If you have your heart set on one industry in
particular, then yes, you probably want
to try to approach your work with that
industry in mind. I'm a fabric designer,
so I've learned that tossed repeats are useful
for things like bolt fabric. Because sewists, and
especially quilters, find it really helpful to have non-directional or
multi-directional prints. So I definitely keep
things like that in mind when I'm working on
new collections for fabric. But I didn't really
start doing that until I was more of an
intermediate designer. And until I had experience as
a licensed fabric designer. That's not to say that you
shouldn't choose an industry and, you know, really set your heart
on it from the beginning because having a dream like that can be extremely motivating. It certainly was for me. I wanted my work on bolt fabric, one, because I wanted to
get back into sewing. And two, because I really loved the idea of
my artwork being on something that other artists and crafters could use to express
themselves creatively. I was right because seeing all the amazing projects
that people make with my fabric is one of the most rewarding
things about my career. But it can be so easy
to overthink things, especially when
you're a beginner. I think that beginners
should really focus more on just making a body of work. Make standalone patterns,
make collections in whatever size you feel
inspired to, experiment. Spend a significant amount of time making whatever
you want to make. And then that's when you
can take a step back. Look at your work and your experiences in
making that work. And look for what
was easier for you, what worked best, what you
liked and didn't like, etc. I believe having
an existing body of pattern work can help you to more easily analyze
where you think your work would fit
and go from there. If you have a specific
industry in mind, you can keep making work until
you feel like it would fit well within whatever
that industry, may be. I made a ton of
standalone patterns, collections, and mini collections
on my own journey too. Finding a style I
felt really good and confident about pitching
to fabric companies specifically. So like I said before,
I don't really think there's a right
or wrong answer. I think if focusing on an industry helps
motivate you, go for it. But if it does the opposite, if it paralyzes you in any way than just focus
on making artwork. And eventually you'll
get to a point where you can better recognize
where it may fit.
7. PI: Collection Complexity: Heroes, Coordinates, & Blenders: "Think of designing
your collections as if you are
styling and outfit - - everything goes together." Lilla Rogers. Typically, pattern collections
should have a balance of complex and simple designs. They should include some
hero or focal point prints, some coordinates,
and some blenders. Hero prints are the
stars of the collection. They are the main focal point. They are generally the
largest in scale, the most complex
and detailed and typically are what most
visually showcase your style. These are the patterns that catch the viewer's attention
and draw them in. They set the foundation for
the rest of the prints through telling a story
or showcasing a theme. And they help draw all
of the prints together. Coordinate prints, support, and coordinate with
the hero prints. They help reference and
support the overall theme. And they are generally less detailed in composition
than a hero print, but more detailed
than a blender print. Coordinates usually
have fewer colors than are typically included
in a hero print as well. And they really round
out a collection. Blender prints do just
as the name suggests. They blend the entire
collection together. They are typically
smaller in scale, the least complex
in composition, and typically only use two to three colors
that are often tonal. I believe that blenders do
most of the work when it comes to really bringing
balance to a collection. Without blenders, a
collection can come across as too busy visually. So what blenders do is
they give a place for the eye to rest when you're looking at an entire collection. So polka dots, stripes, and ginghams are all really
good examples of blenders. This concept of heroes coordinates and blenders
can sometimes trip people up because
it really depends on both your style
and on how all of the patterns within
a collection work with and alongside each other. So it's all relative. Prints are judged in relation to the other prints
surrounding it. If you're like me and
you have a detailed, complex style with
many different motifs, then naturally your
hero prints should be the most complex and detailed patterns
within the collection. But if your style
is more minimalist, then you don't
necessarily need to have super complex hero prints. I've seen many beautiful, successful collections where all of the prints could
be classified as coordinates and blenders if they existed in
another collection. For example, Clea Broad has a gorgeous
collection called Love Struck with Paintbrush
Studio fabrics that I think falls
into this category. The collection
description reads, "We have met our match with
Clea Broad's first collection, Love Struck, inspired
by the magic of fire, this deceptively simple
abstract collection is perfect for all of your DIY
home dec or sewing projects! This mighty matchstick
collection has six prints available in a warm
and cool colorway that is sure to stun." This is how I categorized
the prints in this collection just from
looking at them. To me, the Strike print feels like the main or focal
point print here. And then I also
think the Hello You print is a hero as well. While the rest feel like
coordinates and blenders. After reading the description, I felt pretty validated in
my assumptions and I picked up on all of that from
just visuals alone. This collection
works because all of the beautiful patterns go
together so wonderfully, but there is still some
variety in complexity. So even if you have a
more minimalist style, you still have hero prints in relation to the other designs. The main point I
want you to take away from this is that if your style is more minimalist,
embrace that quality. It's not necessary to
try to force yourself to make something more complex
than feels right to you, if that wouldn't be
a true reflection of the kind of beauty and artwork that you want to
put into the world. One last piece of
advice I want to give regarding complexity
is to try to go into creating a
hero print with the knowledge that it can
take a lot of time to create. This print is called
Buzzing Meadow, and it is one of the hero prints in my
Harmony collection. It is complex for sure, which made it very
time-consuming to create. [laughs] I actually go over my process
of creating this pattern in more detail in my first pattern class
in case you're curious. But long story short, I spent a lot of time
creating sections of flowers, grouping them, and testing the repeat over and over
throughout the process. If you have a more detailed
or maximalist style and you start to hero a repeat, knowing that it may take a long time and a lot of trial
and error to get it right, for me, it feels less
frustrating when it does inevitably take approximately 10 million repeat
tests to get it perfect. [laughs] Your mileage may vary on that, but I like to share
that advice anyway, just in case
Some of you will find hero prints to be
the most difficult to create. And others will actually find blender prints to be
the most difficult. I used to struggle
with blenders myself, because I tend to want
to just add more, whether it's color or
motifs or whatever. This is part of the reason
why working in collections is so
valuable because it really stretches you as an artist and helps you
to build those skills. Now I really enjoy making
blenders because it feels like a nice break from the super time-consuming hero
prints that I make.
8. PI: To Repeat or Not to Repeat Motifs?: Something else that I
often see designers struggle with is the
question of whether or not it's okay
to repeat motifs across multiple patterns
within a single collection. I remember learning years ago that you should
avoid doing this. And I've seen a
lot of feedback in the various communities
that I've been a part of over the years suggesting
the same thing. But the fact is I see
motifs being used across patterns in licensed
collections all the time. I see it so often
that I've started looking for it and
noting it out of habit. So much so that I can think of quite a few collections off the top of my head
where this is true. I do agree that it is
generally best practice not to repeat a particularly eye-catching
motif across patterns. But I think that it's
more than okay to do so with less
prominent motifs. And even that is not
a hard set rule. It just becomes a
little more tricky when the element
you're repeating is a particularly eye-catching
sort of hero motif, if you will. This is a fabric collection
that I have licensed with Riley Blake
Designs called Harmony. And this little flower
motif is repeated across both a hero
pattern and a coordinate. In the hero pattern,
there are a ton of other floral motifs
surrounding it. Whereas in the coordinate, this particular
flower is the star. I also have a very simple
bee design that is repeated across three separate patterns,
two heroes and one blender. The bee is the star of
the blender print, but not the two heroes. These two patterns are
by Corinne Wells and they are a part of her
beautiful collection called Rocky Mountain Wild, also with Riley Blake Designs. If I'm not mistaken, these are the exact same repeat with all of the same motifs. The difference being
that the coordinate only uses two colors and
is scaled down, whereas the main hero
version is much more colorful and at a
significantly larger scale. I think that this is
a really clever usage of a beautiful repeat. And it works perfectly because
these two prints still serve a very different purpose
within the collection, even though they use
the same motifs. It's a perfect example of
what I've been talking about. Some designers might not
think to try something like this because they're
worried about breaking a rule. But patterns can absolutely
share motifs as long as you make sure that all of them serve a different purpose
within a collection.
9. PI: Color Palettes for Collections: Well balanced
collections generally include 8 to 18 colors. There should be some neutrals. So think creams, topes, grays, browns, and blacks. I often find that having several shades of the same
color is pretty useful. So in this collection, I
have a couple of purples, quite a few pinks and
greens and so on. You always want to include dark and light colors to ensure that there is
plenty of contrast. Not only do you want
to make sure that each pattern has
enough contrast, but that the
collection as a whole has enough contrast as well. Much like complexity,
color is also relative, so what may be considered
a dark color in one collection could be a mid-tone or light
color in another. In this collection,
I consider the plum purple and the hunter
green to be dark colors. Then this sort of
rich terracotta color is a dark in this colorway. The raspberry color
is a mid-tone too dark color as well, I think. The most important
thing to remember is that you want your colors
to provide enough contrast. The fabric manufacturer
that I work with can print 18 colors per pattern. Don't quote me on this, but that seems to be an
industry standard. 18 is a fairly common
number that I hear. Something that I really
want to stress though, is that one of the most common
mistakes that we make as new designers is using too
many colors in a collection. Really challenge
yourself to limit your color palette
as much as possible. If you observe the
color palettes of more experienced and
mature surface designers, you'll find that most of them use fairly limited palettes, sometimes with only six
or eight colors total. I tend to use more
than that though. I use about 15 in one colorway and
21 to 22 colors overall. But that's with
three colorways, so there would be fewer
colors if I just had two. This pattern is called
Living Wall and it's probably the most complex
pattern that I have ever made. When I revisited this
pattern for this class, I was actually
pretty surprised to discover that it only
has nine colors. It almost looks like it uses more than that, at least to me. But sure enough, these
are the only colors included in this very
complex large repeat. A quick way to
figure this out is by selecting the rectangle
that it's applied to. Going to any of
the three swatches and clicking and dragging the pattern repeat onto
your art board. And then with it still selected, click New Color Group. Click Okay, and it will pop them all into your
swatches panel. That's just something I didn't
share in my other class, and it's a nice
way to figure out what colors are in a
particular pattern. Something I think is
helpful to be aware of is that you can include shades, tones, or tints of
the same color. And you don't necessarily
have to count all of them in your color palette or use all of them in the rest
of the collection. What I mean by that is
sometimes you have a motif that requires multiple tones
of the same color. So if you're going for a
watercolor or a painterly sort of look, you will often need three to five tones
of the same color. This pattern here is
by Bonnie Christine, who is one of my
mentors and also a mentor and teacher to
thousands of other people. And if you haven't checked out
her classes on Skillshare, you definitely need to do that. So these flowers were created by scanning in
watercolor paintings. And she used, I think, five tones of pink for the petals and
four or five tones of green for the leaves. So with the background
cream color and the yellow gold
in the stamens, there's technically
about 13 colors in this pattern alone. However, she only
used maybe two of the pinks and two of the greens in the rest
of this collection. So her overall color palette
is still quite limited. Probably the most common
feedback I've given on pattern collections
is that one or more of the patterns
needs more contrast. If two colors that are too similar in value are touching, they are difficult to
differentiate visually. You don't want your
viewer to have to squint in order to see
some of the motifs. So if you're trying to stick with a certain amount of colors within an existing
limited color palette, and you're worried about adding another tone or shade
of one of your colors in order to fix a
contrast issue, my advice is to not
worry about that so much and not let it
dictate that color change. I used to worry about
upping the number of total colors in a
palette all the time. Now that I've had
some experience working with a fabric
company though, I have found that it's more important to make sure
that the colors have enough contrast than it is to make sure that
you technically are only using a certain amount of colors in a collection. As long as there
aren't more than 18 colors in one pattern, generally, the screen printing manufacturer can make it happen. Companies often make minor
color changes anyway, and they have always
worked with me to make sure colors are working and
that there aren't too many. All of that being said, I just wanted to remind
you again that limiting your main set of colors is a really
good practice, with the ONE exception being different tones or
shades when necessary. I hope that makes sense. I just know that
it's something that I've stressed over myself. So I wanted to talk about it hopefully to alleviate
some stress for others.
10. PI: Collection Colorways: Now let's talk colorways. As I mentioned before, since I have always had my heart set on becoming a
fabric designer, I have always made all of my pattern collections and at least two colorways
to begin with. I always try to finalize my first colorway before
moving on to the second. But sometimes I get inspired by a color idea in the middle of the collection creation process. And I land on something that I end up using in a
second colorway. So that's fine. But it can be really
helpful to really nail down one colorway before
moving on to a second. And by the way,
my color palettes often go through a ton of changes throughout the
collection creation process. And that is totally
okay as well. Sometimes you think you have a perfect palate to begin with. And then as you build patterns, it becomes clear that you
need to make some changes. The fabric company
that I work with does three colorways
per collection. So I had to create
a third colorway for them before turning
in my Illustrator files. I was really excited
about getting to do that, but I also just did not
really know what I was doing. So this is originally what my first fabric collection
Harmony looked like. I submitted to Riley
liked designs with just five of these patterns
in this first colorway. Because at the
time, that was what their submission
guidelines asked for, just five patterns. Then they also wanted to
print this beehive one that I didn't actually include in
the five pattern submission. And then later on
they asked me to make another blender with bees. So this is an overall look at the three
colorways that I came up with for the final seven
patterns that were chosen. I turn them in and told the
director of design that I was 100% open to whatever color
changes they wanted to make. So they got back
to me with...this. So they changed this one... This one...and this one. I think because I
had more blue in my original set of patterns, I had it in my head that I
needed to keep that blue. I felt an attachment
to it. I guess. Now it feels wild to me that I didn't even think of
getting rid of it. Like, it wasn't an option for me, not because I wasn't
open to changing it, but because I
didn't think of it. Luckily, the creative team at Riley Blake Designs rightfully recognized that it was an extra color that didn't really need
to be there anymore. So they created this
gorgeous sage green version using a green that
already existed in the collection and limiting
the palate a bit more. I absolutely love this
green version two, so I'm so glad they did that. Anyway. I think switching
these two honey colors and having more of this deep yellow ocher color was a great decision as well. I believe they also changed the pink in this bee blender from a baby pink to a more peachy
pink like I have over here. Once again, limiting
the colors a bit more. And then with this
Honeycomb print, they changed this one
to the purple gray. Now with some more experience, I realized that
these two versions were way too similar before, which made it so that
they were serving the same purpose
within the collection. So if they were in a
store side-by-side, no one would need both, right? That's a good question
to ask yourself when you're creating
a second colorway... Do both color versions of the same print contribute something different
to the collection? If a customer or shop owner was presented with both options, would they want to buy both? If they're too similar, the answer is most likely that they would only choose one. You want to make sure
that every print is needed in some way. By giving this one a
mid-tone background, these two prints are
now automatically accomplishing a different
mission within the collection. The creative team at Riley
Blake Designs has helped me finalize color on both of the collections I have
with them so far, which has been a
really wonderful learning experience for me. Clearly. [laughs] I like to share that because I think it's comforting
to know that your colors don't have to be absolutely perfect in
order to get licensed. And that most, if not all, companies will work with you to
finalize colorways. So now I want to take
a closer look at these two colorways and
talk about why they work. Remember if you're
going to create more than one colorway, it's fine to just stick
with two to begin with, and only create a third if
a company asks you for one. I don't want you to create
any extra work for yourself. In colorway one, I
have two dark colors, the purple and the brown, that I've used throughout
the collection whenever I need a really
clear pop of contrast. I've got some mid-tone
colors in the red-orange the gray,
and these purples. Then quite a few lighter tints. I have four or so
neutrals in the creams, blushes, and also
the gray and brown. In the second colorway, I pretty much just
used varying shades of the dark green
for all of my darks. So in the beehive print, there are actually one
or two more shades of green that I haven't pulled
out in the color palette. There are fewer neutrals
in this colorway, just the gray and blush
and cream colors. But that's okay because they're
doing the job just fine. I think there's also
an off-white color that I don't have pulled
out in the palette. That's in the deer's
ears and the honeycomb. I don't really consider it as a part of the overall
color palette because it's just there to provide contrast
where I need it. But even with that
color included, it's still only 16 colors
in this colorway. The longer rectangles are the colors that are
used in both colorways. It's a good idea to carry
several of the colors from your first colorway
over to your second. Because that will help
the two colorways feel balanced and cohesive. Generally, you want
your two-color ways to feel like they coordinate
with each other well, while also being different. Think of it kind of like a healthy partnership or marriage. You go together well, but you're still two
separate individuals. [laughs] My suggestion is
to carry over some or all of the neutrals
and also to bring some of the primary colors
from the first colorway over to be secondary colors
in the second colorway, then introduce some
new colors altogether. So the star colors of
the first colorway, or the purples and peaches. While the stars of the second colorway are
clearly the greens. But the neutrals, golds, and peaches that are shared allow for both colorways
to really look related. Now I want to bring up
my third colorway again because the first and
third colorways have, essentially, the
same color palette with maybe one or
two differences. And then certain
colors are a bit more showcased in one than
they are in the other. However, I do think that
these two colorways are far more similar than
is generally advised. I wanted to talk about it because I think
it's important to point out when there are
exceptions to the rules. You usually wouldn't want your colorways to look this similar, but sometimes it's
okay to do this. And even sometimes
full collections have just one big colorway. This lovely collection
is called Blue Jean, and it's by
Christopher Thompson. It features blue in almost
every shade because that is a huge part
of the theme itself. Something that I see new
designers do quite often is they will use the same background
color in too many prints. I remember one instance
where someone had used the same background color in four patterns across
two colorways. Four feels like
one-to-many to me, especially in just
two colorways. There is only one example of
the same background color being used for three prints
in this collection. And this is a collection
of three colorways, so there's more room for that. But even with three colorways, I wouldn't include four prints with the same background color. Funnily enough,
there are three of the same backgrounds in
this collection as well, with the other background colors only claiming one
or two patterns. Once again, my most commonly
used background color in this collection
is also purple. [laughs] I really didn't know
I was this drawn to this plum purple before
making this much artwork. [laughs] One final thing regarding
color that I want to share is...if you are designing with
a specific industry in mind, and if that industry
uses screen printing, you want to make sure
that all elements are motifs of the same color of one colorway correspond to the same elements of
the other colorway. In screen printing, a screen is cut for
each separate color. So having them correspond
makes it so that the same screens can be
used between colorways. So for example,
the pink hearts on art board A correspond to the purple hearts of art board B and the white hearts
of artboard C. You can reduce colors from one colorway
to the next though., so in this first colorway, the hearts are multicolored, while in the second and third colorways the hearts
are all one solid color. They wouldn't need to
cut another screen for the second two
colorways because they can still use the same screens that were cut for the
multi-colored version.
11. PI: A Quick Note on Pantone Colors: First of all, if you don't know, Pantone is a global
coloring system that was created to simplify
coloring worldwide. In 1962 Pantone set the standard for color management through a
standardized numbering system, which allows artists, companies, and manufacturers to much more easily communicate
color to each other. There are two Pantone systems. The Graphic system was created
for print and packaging, and the Fashion and Home system
was created for textiles, apparel, and home goods. I see a lot of new designers worrying about if
they need to purchase a Pantone color fan deck
and if so, which one? They're expensive so you want to be sure you're
getting the right one, right? Well, let me just tell you, you do not need to
worry about this until a company asks you to convert your artwork
to Pantone colors. If said company is
a fabric company, then you will want to get
the fashion and home system. Whereas if said company is
a greeting card company, then you will want to
get the graphic system. If you're still unsure, just ask politely and they will tell you which fan deck
you need to order. All of that said, I
have not yet been asked to provide Pantone
colors by a company I'm licensing with. I
ordered the Fashion and Home fan deck as soon as I
signed my licensing deal with Riley Blake Designs because I wanted it for personal
reasons and because it is pretty cool
to be able to match the colors yourself and do
some of the work for them. But they didn't
ask me to do that. So please don't worry about it. If you ever end up needing it, you can simply order it then.
12. PII: Physical or Digital Portfolios: Is It Worth It To Send Both?: If you're not putting
your work out there, you're not giving people the opportunity to
find you and hire you. Remember how I landed a dream licensing
deal within a year once I actually started
submitting my work? Well, I managed to do so with just five patterns setup
in an 11 by 8.5 inch PDF. No fancy frills, no cover
image or table of contents, no physical printed
portfolio sent. Just a polite, concise e-mail introducing
myself with links to my website and Instagram and a PDF of five full
pages of patterns. The director of design for
Riley Blake Designs told me that her and the team really liked the mini collection I submitted, as well as some patterns from another collection I
had on my website. So they definitely did
take a look at my website, probably engage my
overall body of work. But what I want you
to take away from that is that they were
enamored enough with just the five patterns
that I shared with them initially to look
into the rest of my work. So that's a nice segue into the first thing
that I want to talk about regarding surface
design portfolios. That is the question of physical or digital
portfolios and whether or not it is
worth it to send both. I'm somewhere in
the middle on this. I don t think that there's a
right or wrong answer here. When I first started pitching
to companies in 2019, I sent both a digital and a physical portfolio
whenever possible, unless that is
accompany specified in their submission guidelines
to only send a digital copy. As I mentioned it before, I spent quite a lot
of time designing and putting together my
surface design portfolio. I had two versions printed. The first in this larger format, so that I could create
this beautiful handmade, fancy version with
fabric printed from Spoonflower and my
embroidered logo. And the second version in a more
standard magazine format, which I ordered
from Blurb books. I ordered about 25. I think they came out to
about 7 or 8 dollars per book. I printed them specifically so that I could give them
away to companies I was pitching to
you and not feel so precious about never
seeing them again. On Blurb, you can have
trade books or magazines printed for about
3 to 5 dollars for, I believe, 24 pages. I think if I were to
go that route again, I would make sure
my portfolio only has 24 pages or whatever the max number of pages is so that they would be a little bit more
affordable next time. So tip number one, if you plan to print
a physical portfolio, look into the dimensions and pricing of various formats and sizes before you start to
design your digital portfolio. That way, you can design it in this specific format you chose. And you won't have to reformat
it in order to print it. I accidentally formatted one of mine in the wrong page size, so I wasted a lot of
time reformatting it. I was already designing
it in two sizes because I wanted my fancy book bound version to be in a different format from
the magazine version. So I ended up having
to format it at three sizes instead of just the two that
I had planned for. So just be prepared with the correct format or formats when you go into
creating your portfolio. Blurb Books is great by the way. I was really happy with the quality and you kinda can't
beat their pricing. I've included a PDF with all
of my portfolio-related recommendations that
you can download under the Projects
& Resources tab. If you're wondering
what program you should use to build a portfolio, you can create the portfolio in Illustrator if you're not
familiar with using InDesign. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend it because I
built mine in Illustrator. And even using a computer
with 32 gigs of RAM, my portfolio Illustrator
document got super huge and started to lag and become really
difficult to work with. If you do use Illustrator, I would suggest creating a few pages in
separate documents, rather than having
20 to 30 art boards in one document with a bunch
of patterns applied to them. That's a quick way to make an overly huge document
that's hard to work with. So 1 to 3 or 4 pages per document is a
lot more manageable. From there, you
can export them as PDFs or jpegs and
combine them into one PDF using the preview app on a Mac or by using Photoshop
or Adobe Acrobat. I created my fancy portfolio
to have something really beautiful to take with me to trade shows and to show to
potential collaborators. I took it to fulfil market
in 2019 and showed it to six or so companies, and it
served me really well. I also gave away six or seven of my magazine format portfolios to the same companies and
I sent the rest out to different companies and
industries throughout 2019. I don't regret any of that. However, I have decided
that in the future, I'm going to rely primarily
on my digital portfolio. I spent quite a lot
of money and time on printing and
mailing my portfolios. And the only
licensing deal that I was able to land in that time was done with a simple
digital submission and a link to my website. I've decided that I would
rather save some money and prioritize spending more time on creating than on mailing
physical portfolios. In my experience, you are
just as likely to gain opportunities through
digital submissions as you are to gain them through
sending physical portfolios. That said, I do like having a physical
portfolio just for myself and also to show to people if I go to more trade shows,
so in the future. I do plan to have updated
portfolios printed from either a company called Artifact Uprising or
Blurb Books again. But I only plan to have one really beautiful copy printed at a time that
I won't be giving away. There's also the
option of simply using a three-ring binder
with your patterns and artwork presented cleanly
and beautifully within. That's a really great option. I know has worked
wonderfully for many people. Another benefit of
doing that is you can easily take out old
artwork and put in new artwork and/or curate your portfolio depending on who
you're meeting with, so if you're meeting with a wallpaper
company, for example, you can choose to only include the artwork that
you think would fit well within the
wallpaper industry. If you want to try printing cheaper physical copies and sending them out to companies, if you feel excited about that, then by all means go for it. I know that that has worked
wonders for a lot of people, but just know that
you don't have to, in order to be successful.
13. PII: What Should You Include In Your Portfolio?: I see a lot of people
struggle with the question of what you should include in
your pattern design portfolio. Is it okay to include standalone patterns
and mini collections? Or should you wait
until you have two or three full collections before you start submitting? Should you have at least a 100 patterns before you
start submitting? The short answer is that
it is more than okay to include mini collections
are standalone patterns. If you love them, they fit with your style and you
would like to see them licensed. It's
as simple as that. You do not need 100 patterns. My portfolio only has about 30, and I think my website's
still has less than 50. And remember, I landed
a licensing deal with a mini collection
of just five patterns. I think as long as you have, let's say ten to 15
solid portfolio pieces that you feel really good about. You have enough to start
reaching out to companies. If you're someone who
works in mini collections, this format of showcasing
a hero print with one to two coordinates is
a popular way to showcase art. Many artists package their surface design artwork
this way to great success. It depends on the
industry, of course, but many companies often only buy one or two patterns
at a time anyway. Again though, if you're
someone who enjoys working in full collections,
then go for it! There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It's just not
absolutely necessary. I want to share an
extremely helpful piece of advice that I learned
from Bonnie Christine. And that is to only include work that you would want to buy, or at least be tempted to buy
if you saw it in a store. This goes for both
collections and portfolios. "Would I buy this?" or "Do I
feel great about this?" are always good questions
to ask yourself. If the answer is no, then
you should either scrap that pattern you feel unsure about or work to
turn it into a yes. I waited to start pitching
to companies until all of the patterns in my
portfolio were yeses for me. So I waited until I felt
confident in my pattern work, and even though it took me a
long time to get there, I'm glad that I waited because
it made receiving all of the inevitable rejections
that I got, and which you will receive once
you start putting your work. There's no way around that. It made those rejections a
lot easier for me to handle. I think. I was able to recognize that it wasn't about
the quality of my work. So much as it was about
timing or taste or a company not looking for work in my
style or any number of things that don't have
anything to do with my worth and abilities as
an artist and designer. If you love what
you're creating, that is the most
important thing. If I had rushed the process and started sending out
my portfolio before, I felt really good
about my work. I suspect that I
would've dealt with a lot more doubt surrounding
my skills as a designer. I still, of course, feel doubt and
insecurity at times, as that is really only natural
for us artists to feel. I still experience
imposter syndrome. I still ask for feedback from my creative community and
from my family and friends. I still often really need
that validation from others. But even with those
doubts, ultimately, I knew that my artwork was beautiful and I
just needed to find the right people who
would connect with it and recognize its potential. I knew that I needed to be patient and continue
to persevere and eventually the timing
would be right for me. And I was right! I really couldn't be happier with how things have turned out for
me. I'm a fabric designer for one of my top
fabric company choices, and who knows if that would have happened had I not waited? My only regret and
I hesitate to even call it a regret because that feels like
too strong a word. But I do believe
that I could have gained more momentum
a little bit more quickly had I started submitting as soon as I
felt good about my work and not waited until I had a perfect pristine
portfolio with all of the fancy frills that felt so important
to me at the time. The director of design
for Riley Blake Designs told me that they were interested in some
of the prints in another collection that
I had on my website, which YAY, was so exciting. I wanted to share though, because that collection
went through multiple edits before
it was finalized. They asked me to change the
main print from this...to this. They were unsure of
this hero print. So I changed it
from this...to this, to turn it from a stripe to
a much more dynamic pattern. And luckily, after I did that, they decided that they did
indeed want to print it. They were interested
in printing some of the blenders I
had already made, asked me for one more. So I made this blender. My point is art directors will often work with you to
finalize a collection. So if you feel intimidated
by the beautiful, perfect collections
that you see, just know that many of them are hugely improved upon
through collaboration. And that artists
often have helped. So whether you want to wait until you have three full
collections or you put together a
portfolio full of beautiful mini collections
and standalone patterns. I think the most important
factor is that you feel good about your work
and you feel like it truly represents
you as an artist.
14. PII: A Quick Note on Trends: I am by no means a trend expert, so I'm not going to
speak on it in depth. But my feeling on trends
is that I will only create to trend if it's
something that I'm already interested
in illustrating. I don't really
concern myself too much with them to
be quite honest. For example, I don't worry about designing to the Pantone color of the year unless it's a color that I'm
already drawn to. So once Pantone announces the color
or colors, sometimes, if it's a color that's
already present in my work, I may try to feature
that work a little bit more on Instagram
or my website. But otherwise, I don't really
worry about it too much. If there's a trend theme
that really speaks to me then sure, I
will design to it. But I probably would
have already been designing to it at
some point anyway. [laughs] If a company asked me to
create something to trend or asks if I have any pre-existing
work that's to trend, then of course, I will point
out that work or work to create something for
them if I'm inspired to. But my overall philosophy on
trends is pretty relaxed. It stresses me out too
much to think about them, so I would rather just protect my mental health and create
what I want to create. It's really difficult to
be on top of trends, too, especially when
you're a beginner and you're trying to get your foot
in the door, so to speak. Because it takes so
long for products to both be printed and to
actually get on shelves. It's hard to get your work on those shelves quickly
enough unless you already have a
preexisting relationship with a licensing company. And even then, it depends on the industry and how quickly
the product can be printed. There are also a ton
of evergreen trends. In other words, themes in motifs that will pretty much
always be popular. Just off the top of my head, there's Christmas and Halloween, birthdays, cats, dogs, owls,
florals, of course, succulents and cacti,
gingham, plaids, polka dots, tropical, mushrooms,
suns, moons, and stars, et cetera, et cetera. So these are themes
that will always sell. People are never going
to stop wanting florals. One tip I have is if you're ever feeling stuck,
you can probably find lists of evergreen
design trends online fairly easily
with some googling. And then you can pick and
choose from the list to help you come up with
your next design theme. And it would automatically
be on trend. There are many designers who feel differently about trends and who have
experienced a lot of success by following
them more closely. But I'm not one of them. So
I really can't speak on it. If you're curious to
learn more though, I encourage you to search
here on Skillshare, as I'm sure there's plenty
of teachers here that can offer more experienced
advice on trends.
15. PII: How Do You Get Your Work Noticed?: So once you're ready
to show it off, how do you get
your work noticed? I'm going to read a
couple of paragraphs from Lilla Rogers' is interview and issue 49 of Uppercase Magazine, in which Lilla
gives her advice on how to get work in
surface design. Quote, "Once you have a
bunch of fabulous images, pop them up on your site, post them on Instagram
and Pinterest, and begin to contact companies. You can find companies by turning over the products
you already own, or by finding names
of manufacturers. Visit your favorite
shops and jot down names of manufacturers of
products you love. Then research who
to send your art to by going to their website. Some companies have submissions policies in their websites. Or by calling the
company, simply say, "Hi, I'm an artist (or illustrator or
designer, your choice) and I'd love to send
work to the art director or whoever licenses new artwork." Here's the magic formula: Add all of these people
to your mailing list. Keep making more
gorgeous, inspired work, and keeps sending
your work around. This is not an instant thing. It takes time and commitment. But if you really, really
want it to happen and you follow the process
above, you will get there. You will have a brilliant
career!" end quote. I think this so wonderfully and succinctly summarizes
this ongoing process. The fact is, you have
to put the work in, but it doesn't have
to be all at once. Remember if you
feel overwhelm, break down your research into smaller, more manageable chunks. Try your best not to
get bogged down in the overall picture and
just take it one simple, small step at a time. It can feel scary
to share your work online for a number of reasons. Maybe you're self-conscious
and fearful of what an art director or even just a random stranger
on the Internet may say. Maybe you fear your
work being copied. These are all feelings that I think most people
can relate with. And it's okay to feel them. But you don't want to
let that fear rule you. If you don't share your
work with the world, how will you ever
get it in front of the eyes of the people
who need to see it? I have friends who
were contacted by dream companies through
their Instagrams alone. This doesn't necessarily
mean that you should prioritize social media
over your artwork. I certainly don't, but I do use it and I do share my
work pretty regularly. So take it from me. The risks of sharing your work is well-worth, the rewards. It takes work and
time and courage, but with enough cultivated
patience and perseverance, you will make it happen.
16. PII: Portfolio Presentation: So as I'm sure you've
gathered by now, I believe that most rules are much more flexible
than we tend to assume, and that there are many different ways to succeed
as a surface designer. There is one set of
guidelines that I do believe should pretty much
always be followed though, and that is best
practices on how to showcase patterns
within a portfolio, whether that is on your website, in a digital PDF or in
a printed portfolio. First, don't include a strike or a border around your pattern
squares or rectangles. It can distract from the pattern or sometimes confuse viewers. Is it a part of the
pattern itself or not? Presenting your patterns on a clean white background
with no border, allows for them to be
the stars of the page. And that's what you want. You want your patterns and the mockups you may include with your patterns applied to
stand out on their own. If you're including
a collection logo, make sure that the
font or text of the logo is the star of the logo and that
the motifs used, if any, are supporting the text and not the
other way around. If you include
multiple colorways of a collection within
your portfolio, make sure that the scale
and positioning of each pattern is consistent
across the colorways. You want it to be easy
for art directors to find the sister pattern
in the second colorway. When it comes to showcasing
your patterns on a website, you have a little bit more
freedom because you're not constrained by the size and format of a digital PDF
or physical portfolio. That said, all of
the guidelines that I just talked about still apply. This is my portfolio
page and this is how I have been displaying my surface
design work since 2018, when I first created my
Squarespace website. I have a rotating
banner at the top. And then down here, the background is white. There's no border around
any of the patterns and every duplicate pattern in another colorway is
set at the same scale. I'm actually due for an
update because there are some older patterns
that I want to take out and some new ones
that I want to put in. And then I may organize these
by collection or theme. I haven't decided yet. That said though,
there's nothing wrong with presenting your
patterns like this, I just kind of want a change. But this style of pattern presentation is
what I've used since 2018. And I've had a few art directors
come to my website and choose more patterns of mine
to license from this page. You are totally welcome to use this format if you like it. But if not, I suggest
going to the websites of pattern designers
that you admire and seeing how they display
their pattern work. It can feel really overwhelming to build
a portfolio website, so getting ideas from other
artists is extremely helpful. I, myself, was inspired
by the websites of multiple different
artists that I look up to. Essentially, when it comes
to portfolio presentation, oftentimes less is more.
17. PII: A Quick Note on Print on Demand (POD) Sites: Once again, I am by no
means an expert on selling artwork on POD or
print on demand sites. But I do have some experience and I wanted to
speak on it briefly. I get monthly sales
on Society6, whereas my Spoonflower and
ArtsCase sales are more rare. And that is because I invest the most time in my
Society6 store. That said, it still isn't
very lucrative for me, especially for the
amount of time I spend on uploading artwork. I don't update it regularly because I would
rather prioritize creating and submitting
my portfolio to companies I want
to license with. Some artists do really
well on POD sites, but it does take a
lot of effort and time and personal marketing. Generally speaking,
the buyers on POD sites are individuals. I have heard of companies and resellers finding artists on Society6 and reaching
out to them via email to ask them
to work with them. So POD sites aren't a bad option for
getting your work seen. But keep in mind that there are thousands of artists
on POD sites, so it can also be hard to
stand out in the crowd. This is not meant to
discourage you from implementing POD sites
into your business. I don't regret the
work I've put into Society6 and ArtsCase But just to inform you of
the realities of doing so. Part of what's so
great about licensing, even though you often have
a lower royalty percentage than you have on POD sites, is that the company
you are licensed with does a majority of the
marketing for you to their usually much
larger audience. And they are only selling
the artwork of say, 40 to 100 artists, versus
the thousands on, for example, Society6.
18. Some Words of Encouragement: "Make things because you want to, not because you have to." Bonnie Christine. Whether I'm talking about character design, caricature, watercolors
or patterns. I like to gently
remind my students and my creative
acquaintances and friends to remember why you're
doing this in first place. It's because we love art, right? We love making art. We love being creative. We want to improve
our creative skills, not only because we
want to make a living, but because creativity is
rewarding in and of itself. In all honesty, I wish it
didn't have to make a living. But unfortunately, we're
trapped in a system that forces us to have to make money in order to take
care of ourselves. But I won't go more into my feelings on
that, don't worry. [laughs] The point is, I think
sometimes we get so bogged down in all of the anxiety
surrounding being creative. We get so distracted by the stress and the worry of if we're good enough to succeed, what even is success for us? This project isn't
turning out how I see it in my head, et cetera. We get so distracted by all of these negatives that
we forget the true why. Why are we here? Why are we following this
path when it can feel so difficult and vulnerable
sometimes, or oftentimes. Yes, the answer can
also be that we want a more fulfilling career or
we want to work from home. But the true heart of it, the core of why we're here is because we enjoy
making art, right? And everything else
stems out from that. Try not to lose sight
of the fact that you enjoy being creative. It can be so challenging
to stay motivated throughout a stressful or
disappointing project. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of one
of those projects, I will take a step
back and say, "Okay, Melissa, remember that
you actually like making art. [laughs] Calm down
and take a deep breath." It doesn't make the anxiety or worry disappear altogether, but it does help ground me, and it reminds me that
I can get through it, and that there's
always a messy middle in every piece of art or
projects that we make. Also, if something doesn't
turn out how you want it to, it's not the end of the world. Move on to the next
project and try again. Support is huge. And that's why community
is so important to me. As I touched on already, I have periods of self-doubt and I struggle with
impostor syndrome, and one of the things that
helped me the most to work past those
feelings is the love, support, feedback, and
encouragement that I get from my creative community
and/or my loved ones. Mostly though, I've
reached a point that I believe you will all
be able to reach as well, which is that, ultimately, I believe in myself and the power of self-fulfilling
prophecy. If I say it's going
to happen and I put in the effort and time, I'm going to make it happen. That's an attitude it's taken me years to
cultivate and embrace. And sometimes it's
still really hard to, but ever since I
started embracing it, things have started
happening for me. You'll get there as
well. "Allow yourself to fail before you succeed" is my sort of career catchphrase
mantra, what have you, because I think it is so
important to remember that you will fail on your
journey to success and that that's okay, and you're never
alone in that struggle. Remember the four Ps: Practice, Persistence,
Patience, and Perseverance. Allow for the ups and downs of your moods and doubts
and confidence, and be kind to yourself about
those natural feelings, but as long as you always
keep those four Ps going, you will find success.
19. Thank You!: I know I've given you
quite a lot to think about, so if you're feeling overwhelmed
by all of this information. First of all, that is
totally understandable. It's a lot to take in. But what I hope you
can take away from these lessons is
that you don't have to be a perfect professional who knows what they're
doing at every turn in order to be successful. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay if your colors
aren't absolutely perfect. You don't have to
internalize and memorize all of
this information. One, because you can download the PDFs I've
created for this course. And two, because learning
is a part of the process, even when, or especially when, you become a quote
unquote professional. I have learned so much from practical experience
that I was not aware of before I got my
first licensing deal. The more you practice,
the more work you make, the more you internalize this knowledge and
really start to develop a sixth sense and intuition for all of what
I've been teaching. So try to take
things step-by-step. Focusing on each small step rather than on the
overall picture is the number one thing
that has helped me to not feel totally
overwhelmed all the time. For your class project, all
I'd like for you to do is to share
a screenshot of your current body of
work or a link to your website portfolio,
Instagram, or Pinterest. I'd also like for
you to share what your next step is going to be. If you don't have
any work that you'd like to share yet, that's okay. Feel free to simply pop in a sentence or two
about your next steps. And remember, these steps can be as simple as sending an email, researching one company,
or sketching for five minutes. Focus on the smaller, easier tasks that will eventually lead to
your larger goals. If you enjoyed this class, please leave me a review. And if you want to stay up-to-date with what
I'm posting here, don't forget to hit
the Follow button. You can also follow me
@melissaleedesign on Instagram or sign up for my
newsletter on my website. Thanks so much for joining me! I hope you found this class
inspiring and encouraging. I wish you all the
very best and I can't wait to see where
your careers take you.