How Much Can You Earn from Surface Pattern Design?
For the past 2 years I’ve been sharing my income in my newsletter because I believe in transparency especially around money, and I want to do my part to contribute to the larger conversation. Peep 2018 and 2019 here to see what I have been earning from Surface Pattern Design in the past.
This year, with the advent of my blog, I’m ready to share again, but out on the open internet, I do keep it to percentages. If you want to see actual numbers, you have to sign up for my newsletter and check the archive for my January 1 newsletter.
Let me give you a little background first, in case you’re new around here.
Earning as a Surface Pattern Designer: Hitting My Capacity
In 2019, I hit capacity on client work. I was working steadily on primarily freelance design work for companies that produced gift wrap, stationery, apparel, dinnerware and craft supplies, and a number of new clients came to me. Some of them were a little more production work than conceptual work, but I was busy and I was able to increase my rates with each new client.
As I was scrambling with all the work, and juggling multiple projects each week, I was also thinking about creating a large scale course because I have a lot of experience and because I was ready for something more ‘passive.’
The idea of ‘passive income’ is thrown around a lot in artist circles and what you’ll quickly find is it’s not at all passive, but the reason it’s called such is because you are not trading time for money directly. I saw someone call it ‘scaleable income’ this year and that’s WAY more accurate. Passive/scaleable income sources are a post for another day, but I didn’t have much in the way of scalable income in 2019 and I was ready to create a new, big, exciting course.
The problem was I had been tossing around ideas for a while, and was spinning my wheels. In case you didn’t know, I HATE feeling stuck and unsure of which direction to go, which is why I pretty much always advise charging into your career head first. Since I was feeling super unclear, I knew it was time for some help. So, motivated by reading You are a Bad Ass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, I went on a hunt for a business coach, and by the end of 2019, I had signed up to work for the next 6 months with Erin May Henry.
Take The Leap: Making a Big Investment in Coaching
Let me pause here to talk about my expenses. My business has traditionally been pretty low overhead. Up until 2019, my biggest expenses were an Adobe CC subscription, classes, occasional tech updates like an iPad and a Wacom Cintiq, and travel to trade shows. I spent around $5,000 a year on my business, so my business income was essentially my salary. But I love a cliche and we’ve all heard you’ve got to spend money to make money. By the end of 2019, I had built up enough clientele to be confident in investing in my business, and so I was willing to spend $10,000 in 2019 to work with my business coach (P.S. Now the investment to work 1:1 with Erin has more than doubled...GET IT GURL).
With that investment in mind, I knew that at least the first half of 2020 was going to be devoted to building and launching a new class, and that meant a big shift in my business focus, at least temporarily. As it turned out, everything was gonna be upside down this year anyhow, so I’m fortunate that I had already planned on a different income model.
Excited about what Erin could teach me and with big plans for a huge course, I decided to make a brave declaration. I brought in $81,500 in 2019 (pre tax and expenses- which were higher with that coaching bill) but I was determined to bring in $300,000 for 2020. Dream big, am I right? I didn’t exactly think my client work was going to get me there, I was betting big on a course that didn’t yet exist.
If you’ve been following me, you know that I did indeed create a new course Start Your Surface Pattern Business - and it’s a GOOD ASS COURSE. I ran it twice in 2020. It’s now open on an ongoing basis, so you don’t have to wait until the spring to take it and get all that useful info. Nice.
What Really Went Down in 2020
But also, if you’ve been following, um, 2020, you know that this year DID NOT GO TO ANYONE’S PLAN. In mid-March, just as I was launching SYSPB for the first time, America shut down. My 2 and 5-year-old boys, previously in full-time daycare, were suddenly home all day. That made a huge impact on my business. The momentum I had built up in the beginning of the year, excited to have the guidance of a coach and take on a new challenge, came to a screeching halt. I was lucky that my husband was also working from home, and we did some amount of splitting childcare but my office is usually parked downstairs, behind some flimsy french doors. Even when it wasn’t my ‘turn’ (and it often was due to the inordinate amount of meetings J has) I was constantly hearing the turmoil of toddlerhood. My concentration levels were shot. I was working nap times and bedtimes every night to try to have a coherent uninterrupted thought. It wasn’t great.
So those are some of the factors that contributed to my bigger business picture this year.
How Much Can You Earn from Surface Pattern Design?
As I said before, my income used to be essentially my salary because my expenses were low. This year, my glossy numbers are scaled down significantly by expenses which were about 30% of my total income.
Alright, enough preamble, let’s get to it. How did I do? Did I make my enormous goals? Did I hire a butler to serve me my coffee with gold flakes?
My Income Breakdown
Well in short, I did pretty well considering all the above factors. While most years, freelance work is about 75% of my income, here’s where the break down went this year:
Freelancing: 39%
Licensing: 6% (my take home after my agents cut)
Art on Demand: 2%
Courses and Consulting: 53%
So, quick math means art brought me 47% of my income, and teaching brought me 53% this year.
👉 Want to know exact numbers? You do, I know it. Sign up for my newsletter and you’ll get access to my Surface Pattern Boss Toolkit. Check the archive (yellow box at the bottom of my Toolkit page) for my January 1 newsletter, where I dive into specifics.
Here’s More Relevant Info:
Client work did slow to a crawl from March through June because of the pandemic, but the truth was, I wasn’t seeking work. I was barely hanging on between the work I did have, my kids, and my course goals. I didn’t reach out to old clients often, I didn’t pitch to new clients, I didn’t do anything but check my inbox daily and tread water.
I also hired help for a number of different things, which I dig into a little more in my newsletter, but suffice to say if you’ve been following me and wondering how I do it all- let me be REAL clear. I don’t, and 9 times out of 10, neither do the other people you follow on the internet. I would not have made it through this year without some hired help.
Thank you for all your support this past year- even if it wasn’t monetary because goodness knows money was tight for most people- I appreciate all your comments, questions, input, shares and likes. I hope we can compare notes and talk about all the success you created for yourself as well- if not in 2020, because oof it was a hard one- hopefully in 2021.
[Edited 2022]
My Surface Pattern Design Income for 2021 : Read the blog here
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Ready to Monetize Your Passion for Pattern?
Making your surface pattern dreams come true does not have to be complicated or intimidating. I created the Start Your Surface Pattern Business course as a master plan for you to get focused, ditch the fear, and start pitching your work today.
Here’s What One of My Brilliant Students Had to Say About Their Results From the Course…
"I highly recommend this course! This course brought me to another level of confidence. I was able to create my own website, I have my LinkedIn profile put together, I'm in connection with other designers that are like a support group, and I now have the appropriate business know how in approaching my list of target clients. THANK YOU!"
- Tessa Hall (@tessatextiles)
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