Is Surface Pattern Design Too Saturated?

Is the surface pattern design market too crowded to break into? 

In this solo episode, Canadian artist and educator Delores Naskrent gently unpacks this common fear — and offers a refreshing, hopeful perspective.

Delores shares why now is still a wonderful time to explore surface pattern design and how tools like Affinity Designer can make your workflow more intuitive, enjoyable, and productive. She walks you through:

✔️ How to carve out your niche in a busy market
 ✔️ Why Affinity Designer has changed the game for her design process
 ✔️ The magic of reusable motifs and smart templates
 ✔️ A behind-the-scenes peek at her Bloom and Repeat workshop
✔️ What to expect inside the Surface Pattern Design Masterclass

Whether you’re just dabbling or ready to go all-in, this is a grounded, encouraging listen filled with practical insights and personal experience from someone who knows what it’s like to start later in life — and keep growing.

🎁 Mentioned in this episode:
👉 Sign up for the Bloom and Repeat Workshop starting 30th June 2025 (replay will be available after)
👉 Surface Pattern Design Masterclass - starting July 10th 2025
 

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Transcript

Delores Naskrent (00:05)
Hey there everyone, it's me, Delores and I want to welcome you back to the Creative Juggle Joy podcast. Today I'm going to dive into a topic that I think so many of us in the creative world grapple with. Is the surface pattern design market too saturated? If you're like a lot of artists out there, you've probably wondered, is there still space for me to make a living doing this? And let me tell you right off the bat, the answer is yes.

There is space and there are opportunities, but there's a way to approach it that will genuinely make a difference.

I'm also going to share why Affinity Designer has been a total game changer for me personally, and how it can simplify your workflows in ways that will really blow your mind. So if you've been juggling tools like Procreate or Adobe Illustrator and feeling frustrated with all the steps involved in creating those seamless patterns, trust me, you're going to want to hear this.

And I hope you stick around until the end, because I'm going to be sharing details about my Surface Pattern Design Masterclass and the in-person workshop that I'm hosting on June 30th. I have got some amazing templates to show you that could save you so much time and headache in your design process. So let's jump in.

Okay, so let's address the elephant in the room first. Is the market oversaturated? If you scroll through Instagram or Pinterest or any creative platform, it might seem like everyone is designing surface patterns right now. Trust me, I've had those moments of doubt too. It's so easy to think with so many artists already out there, what's the point of even trying? But here's the thing, while the market has grown, so have the opportunities.

So there's more brands and more companies and more buyers that are aware of and looking for unique and high quality patterns more than ever before, honestly. And while there's definitely competition, there's also ways to carve out your own space. It's not about being the loudest voice in the room or creating the most complex designs.

It's about being consistent and creating high quality work and building a business that works for you. So finding your market is really the key. And you know, it isn't a sprint. It's definitely a long game. I can tell you from experience. Every design, every new skill and every connection you make is a piece of the puzzle. And I know it can feel overwhelming when you're just starting, but trust me, even these small steps add up.

Now let's talk about something that's made my own pattern design process so much easier. And that's Affinity Designer on the iPad. If you've been using Procreate or Illustrator, you already love some things about them. I know I did. Procreate was great for drawing. For example, I still use it for most of my drawing. definitely Illustrator is a powerhouse for lots of different vector work.

and many projects I will still go to Illustrator if I really have to. I overall have switched almost all my vector work to be in Affinity Designer because I can work wherever I want with it. So it's just comfortable, it's easy. I find that it's just better for me. It works for me in every way.

When I first started focusing more on surface pattern design though, I wanted a tool that could make the process simpler and more fun. And what drew me to Affinity Designer was that it combines the best of both worlds. Let me explain that.

So here's why it's been such a game changer for me. What I love is that I can see my pattern unfold with real-time pattern previews. So I work in one artboard that I then have repeated all around my artboard and

I know it sounds really complex, but honestly, you can be working just in that one square in the middle, or you can have it off to the side, whatever you prefer, but you can be working in that square, but you're going to see how your repeat looks if it has repeated several times. So think about how that compares to Procreate. In Procreate, if you're working on that one square tile,

you're not seeing how moving one little flower over here or making something bigger over there, how it really looks overall when the pattern is repeated many times. There are online testers, sure, but it's not instant. You know, there's that extra couple of steps needed. And I recently did try to create or did create a class on creating ⁓ diamond repeat in procreate and

Gosh, it was so much harder than if I had been using Affinity Designer.

One of the things I loved is that I had in Affinity Designer the ability to not have to duplicate motifs and manually line things up. It's just a completely seamless process. Believe me, it's such a time changer and I would love to show you all that. The other thing that is really great and I'm using it more and more almost every day now is that

I can now, in Affinity Designer, toggle between vector and raster tools right in the same program. It's literally seamless. You switch out into the pixel persona and you can add anything painterly that you're used to doing in Procreate. So I know the argument used to be, but I could get such natural looking, you know, what looks like natural media in Procreate.

Yeah, that's something, yes, of course, is missing out of Adobe Illustrator, but here in Affinity Designer, what I love is that I can switch to watercolor painting or I can add inked details. I can do all of that right in the same program. And literally, I will have my thumb in the top right-hand corner of my iPad so I can like literally switch in an instant. I love it.

And then the other thing I love about Affinity Designer is that I have all kinds of reusable assets and they're saved right there in an asset studio. So like a library of all of my own drawn assets. They can be things that I've drawn right there in Affinity Designer and it's been such a huge productivity boost for me.

I save all of these little design elements or motifs as assets and then I can pull them into the projects anytime I need them. And they are completely editable. So I can pull in a six petal flower and change it in two seconds. And it looks completely different from that original. Honestly, once I started using Affinity Designer alongside my custom templates, my workflow completely

Transform like I mean it was it's crazy and it's not a template that you literally have to draw Everything into I've seen a lot of templates that have been created for programs and you're following somebody else's guide to place your flowers or your leaves, but this is Something completely different it's set up with something called a symbol and when you put your simple motif into the symbol

that symbol will repeat. So just close your eyes for a second and imagine this. I have all of these symbols repeated within my pattern and some of them are flipped over, some of them are rotated, some of them are larger, and some of them are smaller. Now imagine pulling in one, just one little flower and popping it into one single symbol.

and poof, your entire pattern is created. Just imagine, like really imagine how wonderful that really is.

Now I know a lot of artists struggle with creating seamless repeat patterns because let's be real, it can feel like a math problem, but using these templates is such good news because it doesn't have to be that way. That's exactly why I developed the templates and I'm gonna be sharing those in that upcoming workshop and I'm gonna teach all of it in my masterclass. You will be amazed and I have...

taking it as a personal challenge to create all kinds of super useful templates. And these are templates that now I just honestly can't live without. Like I have one that's so cool that will reflect and I don't even know how to explain it without showing you, but it's like the four quadrants of the main square.

Within each of those quadrants is a reflection that happens diagonally. And so in this one single little triangle, you can draw some lines or some dots or put flowers in and it literally reflects it throughout the entire pattern. So think about that. You are doing one little corner and you're creating an entire seamless repeat. It's...

Like I said earlier, it's mind blowing.

So before we wrap up, I just want to share one last thing. First of all,

designing an affinity designer, if you're even new to the software, you can skip that steep learning curve and start creating beautiful patterns faster. That's really the main encouragement that I wanna give you. And if you're feeling like you're not making progress fast enough,

know that I've been there. I have felt that frustration and that doubt and that little voice asking if it's even worth it. But I've also learned that the only way to succeed is to keep going. Your goals are worth it and they are achievable one design at a time, one tip or tool at a time, and you will get there. And you don't have to do it all on your own.

That's why I love teaching and sharing what I've learned, because if I can make it even a little tiny bit easier for you, it's so worth it.

Now, if you are curious about how these templates work, I am so excited, really, really excited to share this. If you want to see this firsthand, see how Affinity Designer can make your design process so much smoother, I'd love for you to join me on June 30th for my in-person surface pattern design workshop. We're calling it...

Bloom and repeat. You have to come and watch it. And just to get a feel for how great these templates can be, I'm gonna just do a simple one. In the hour, we'll cover the creation of assets really quickly as well. We're gonna dive into the exact methods that I use to create seamless repeat patterns without the stress.

and I'll show you how to stand out in what might feel like a crowded market.

Plus, I'm going to let you get your hands on some incredible templates that'll save you hours of work. I'm gonna for sure give you two templates just to get started.

And by the way, if you can't make it in person, don't worry. My Surface Pattern Design Masterclass will have you covered. I'm gonna give you step-by-step guidance to make your design or take your designs to the next level. What I'm gonna do is record the workshop so that you can get a look at it even if you are unable to attend right at the time that I'm doing it live.

Whew, I feel like I've talked for a while here. So that's all for today's episode, my friends. I hope that this has given you a new perspective on the opportunities in surface pattern design and some hope for how much easier it can be with the right tools. Remember, this is a long game, but every step you take matters. You've got this. Now, if you have found today's episode helpful, please share it with a fellow designer or leave a review.

It helps me to keep creating this kind of content for you. I would love it, love it, love it if you would invite some friends along to that workshop on June 30th and definitely watch your email because that's where we're going to be sending through a bunch of information and check the show notes below here for any links.

I'm Delores Naskrent and until next time, keep creating, keep juggling, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.