Bonnie Christine
Welcome to The Pattern Post. Every Tuesday I gather everything happening in surface pattern design, art licensing, and illustration, filter it through what I've learned designing and teaching this craft since 2012, and tell you what I'd do about it. Stay informed and encouraged, for free.
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Dear Reader, Last week, I told you we overhauled everything. A course that's worked for 8 years. That's changed thousands of lives. That has a waitlist. Generated millions. I told you we tore it down to the studs, and promised I'd tell you why. If you missed my first letter, you can read it here. So here it is. The moment everything shifted.It was April 2025. My team gathered around the table in a hotel conference room in Atlanta, Georgia. Pens out. Paper ready. Coffee orders arriving in bulk. We were there to plan the 2026 re-record of Surface Design Immersion. I've re-recorded this course in its entirety every two years since 2018. This would be the fifth edition. But as I sat there looking at my notes... Something felt off.I realized what I'd been doing all these years wasn't reimagining. It was updating. A new intro. Refreshed lessons. The 2024 version was really just... the 2018 version with a fresh coat of paint. But here's the thing.2026 is not 2018. I'm not the same educator I was then. You're not the same student. The way we want to learn has completely changed. So I looked at my team and said: What would make this THE 2026 course?And that's when the conversation cracked wide open. We started by telling the truth.The truth about what it feels like to be a student right now. Not eight years ago. Right now. And here's what we said out loud, things I think you might feel too: We're tired. Tired of staring at screens. Tired of watching talking heads videos. Tired of courses that over-promise and under-deliver. Tired of buying something, starting it, and never finishing. "I have a stack of half-started courses", one of my team members said. "I've wasted so much money". "I don't want to consume a bunch of stuff anymore." I felt that in my chest. And I know you might feel it too. So we started asking.We surveyed over 15,000 alumni. We poured over hundreds of responses, carefully holding everything people loved and taking every suggestion for improvement to paper. What we heard confirmed what we were already feeling. You want less time online and more time with your hands. You want to feel like you're building something that will work, not just checking off lessons. You want analog.You want tactile. You want the joy (and yes, the mess!) and the magic of actually creating. And underneath all of it? You want to know that it's not too late. That your art still matters. That there's still room for you in this industry. I need to tell you something about that last part. Because what we discovered next changed everything. A few weeks after that retreat...I walked the floor of the world's largest licensing trade show.
I met with hundreds of brands and buyers and I listened to what they were actively seeking. And you know what I heard over and over again?
We want art with a story. We want the human at the center. We want to know who the artist is and where the inspiration came from.
Not AI-generated. Not mass-produced. Human.
This industry is not leaving you behind.
This is the moment. And I don't say that lightly. So we walked out of that Atlanta hotel room with a completely new vision. …and wholeheartedly EXCITED!!Still the technical skills (always). Still the how-to-turn-your-creativity-into-a-career foundation that Surface Design Immersion has always been (of course). But more connection. More humanity. More mess.A course that feels less like watching and more like being there, sitting with me in my studio, walking through my garden, building something beautiful with our own hands, together. As one of my team members said: It’s technical, but we’re breathing full life into it. We rewrote every single lesson of the course.Every single page of the workbook. Everything you need to get messy, play and accelerate your path to success. We reimagined what it would feel like to learn this way. Not on a screen in a silo. But as part of something alive and breathing. And then we did something we've never done before.That no online educator has done before. And I'll be honest, it was a little wild. Maybe even crazy? We cleared the calendar. Booked flights. Hired professionals. I'll tell you what exactly we did in next week's letter. With love, Bonnie Christine, Creative Director In other (exciting!) news…P.S. In other creative news... we just released a 60+ page free workbook called Turn Your Creativity Into Dollars. I've poured over a decade of experience and my whole heart into this resource. Over 6,000 of you have already grabbed your copy in just 48 hours (mind blown). If you haven't grabbed yours yet, you'll want to do that right here. I recorded an audio version for you, too!
P.P.S. My friend Ali Baecker is hosting a free live demo called The Magic of Block Printing and if you've been craving slower, hands-on creativity, this one's for you. It's free, and such a lovely way to spend an afternoon creating with your hands. Save your free spot here. (Yes, that one is a partner link, but you know I only share what I genuinely believe in!) |
Bonnie Christine
Welcome to The Pattern Post. Every Tuesday I gather everything happening in surface pattern design, art licensing, and illustration, filter it through what I've learned designing and teaching this craft since 2012, and tell you what I'd do about it. Stay informed and encouraged, for free.