Just a little over a year ago, I made one of my biggest course investments and enrolled into Surface Pattern Design Immersion with Bonnie Christine. And to be honest, I didn’t have big dreams of creating patterns at the time I purchased the course, which makes me laugh. But I did have something spark inside of me that was telling me to take the leap and get the course that could open up new creative doors in the future. So I did!

When I enrolled in the course back in February of 2021, I started working through the first few lessons but really didn’t get far into it because quickly after enrolling, the wedding industry surged and my invitation business took off. So since then, I have been staying focused on that part of my business with not a lot of extra time to try new things.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been wanting to make a shift in my business to allow for a wider variety of creative projects. Lately I’ve been really feeling the pull to dust off that pattern course and try something new and inspiring! I’ve also been wanting to learn how to sew and I dream of sewing baby girl outfits with my patterns. Wouldn’t that be so fun?! I haven’t felt this inspired and motivated to create something new like this in a long time and it feels so exciting! 

So I thought it’d be fun to bring you along and show you behind the scenes of my process as I create a pattern collection for the first time. I’m going to use the same creative process that I go through with every custom wedding invitation project and start by putting together a creative brief. I’ve put together a creative brief template and you can grab this template for your next project right here for free. You can also check out my YouTube video to watch as I work through the creative brief process. 

The steps include:

1. Gather information and inspiration for the collection. For this stage, I send my wedding couples a questionnaire to get to know them on a deeper level and this really helps me to get inspired and see their vision. I want to do something similar with creating a pattern collection, so I’ll create a design brief and answer some important questions, like:
   
   • Why am I creating this collection? What is the story behind the collection?
     
   • Who is this pattern collection designed for?
     
   • What types of products is this collection intended for?
     
   • How many colors will the collection have?
     
   • What themes will the collection have?
     
   • What are some key words or phrases for the collection?
     
   • Name ideas for the collection
     
2. Mood board. For this stage, I browse the photos on my phone that I’ve taken & search pinterest to source images that capture what I am envisioning for the collection. When I source inspirational photos, I try really hard to stay away from other artist’s work and instead choose things like flowers, plants, landscapes, textures, and end products that I’d like to turn the patterns into such as baby girl outfits. This part of the process helps me really visualize the style of the collection and is one of the best foundational steps. 
   
3. Color palette. Once I put together a mood board or pinterest board of inspiring images, I start to see similar colors arise. I’ll color pick colors with the eyedropper tool, or sometimes I scroll the pantone swatches to see if I find colors that encompass the overall theme nicely. For this first pattern collection, I will actually be using my new brand colors so I already have those picked and ready to go! I may add a few more colors such as a gold and burnt sienna. I love the soft and playful contrast of the warm nude pinks to the cool, earthy blues and greens in my new brand colors!
   
4. Concept sketches. Next step is to start sketching out ideas for the pattern ideas and motifs used within the patterns. Sketches are like my roadmap and are a really great way for me to visualize the designs with a plan. And to just play around here! For this pattern collection, I’m keeping my end products at the forefront of my designs. The patterns will primarily be used for fabric, especially for baby girls and even some women’s clothing. I decided to sketch out the baby girl outfits and design patterns that will look cute made into these outfits. This is so helpful so I can narrow down the possibilities. My goal is to create a collection of 8 patterns.
   
5. Design phase 1 – Once I have my sketches finished, it’s time to start creating the patterns! This is where I’ll start to create the individual pattern motifs that will turn into the patterns, such as painting leaves, rose buds, butterflies. I plan to play around with creating the motifs by painting with watercolor and digitizing the paintings, as well as painting digitally with my new ipad on procreate. This is one of the longest phases of the process and could take weeks to months to create the first drafts of the patterns. If you’re interested in seeing one of the patterns come to life and to try creating a pattern yourself, watch my pattern making video that I created on YouTube. 
   
6. Design phase 2 – Once I have created all of the patterns that I believe will make up a well rounded pattern collection including a few feature patterns and complimentary patterns in varying scales, I move into phase two of the design creation phase. During this phase, I comb through each of the patterns to see if there are any weird gaps, test out new colorways, and spend a good amount of time making any edits with fresh eyes. I’ll put all of the pattern swatches together in the same document so I can see them all together as a collection. It’s also great to ask for feedback from other artists and get their opinions but I wouldn’t overdo it on getting too many opinions! Another really helpful part of phase two is to create digital mock ups with the patterns. A digital mockup is a photo of a white garment, pillow, wall, and you place your patterns on the objects to see how the pattern could look printed as the end product. I looove mockups! You can find great mockups over at .
   
7. Print Production – Once the collection feels finished and I’m happy with each of the designs, this is when I approve the collection and move it into print production! This is one of the most exciting parts of the entire process. Before I ever print full batches of a product, I always order test prints. Especially with fabric since each fabric weave will produce different colors and textures from the same pattern. When the fabric test swatches come in, I’ll likely have to make some tweaks to the patterns. Maybe the scale of the pattern feels too small or big, or the colors just aren’t printing as vibrant. It’s important to remember that every printer could produce different results as well, so if I ever change print companies, I’ll want to do another round of test swatches.
   
8. Launch the collection to the world! – This is quite possibly the most exciting and nerve-wracking part of the entire process. Whenever I launch something that I’ve put so much love and time into, I get that same sense of relief feeling after you finish taking an exam. All of the nerves release and it’s such a proud feeling! Launching a product and service can look so different. From posting the collection to my own website or onto a licensing website like Creative Market. A launch will always benefit from hyping up the launch on social media to create excitement! This is a big reason why I’ve decided to share the behind the scenes of my process of creating my first pattern collection.