resources for surface designers

I’ll start by saying that the tools available to surface designers today are endless, and my list is just a tiny collection of my personal current favorites. As my design journey evolves (never stop growing!), I’ll keep updating it with my go-to spots for inspiration, design elements, artwork distribution, etc.

You will come across some affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you purchase something through the link. Every purchase helps my small creative business pay for the time and resources to run this site. Thank you for stopping by and for your support - I hope you’ll find these as helpful as I do!

Adobe CREATIVE CLOUD

As a photographer and pattern designer, I couldn’t possibly imagine running my business without these invaluable programs. My most used are currently Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

Adobe color

Another great product from Adobe! When looking for a fresh palette, the perfect coordinate for a design or inspiration, Adobe Color comes in very handy. You can create palettes and save them directly to your creative cloud libraries!

SPOONFLOWER

A great POD (print-on-demand) resource for surface pattern designers, interior decorators, and makers who work with fabric or wallpaper. Millions of unique designs from independent artists are at your fingertips at any given moment, in quantities as small as a fat quarter! If you’re looking to sell you designs on fabric, wallpaper, home decor items, Spoonflower is one of the platforms you should definitely consider. Personally, I’m using Spoonflower every day and order pattern proofs for my shop on a weekly basis.

creative Fabrica

aka maker’s asset paradise. From SVG files to seamless patterns to the POD designs that are ready for immediate use. If you’re a maker, a POD seller or a designer, the cost of this subscription is negligible and gives you access to millions of design assets! It’s worth mentioning that they’ve released several AI generators that you can play with.

Amazing fonts galore, product mockups, and so much more - check it out here!

Dubsado - CRM

Keeping you leads, contacts and all of your emails in one place makes managing your business so much more enjoyable! I’ve been using Dubsado for five years for my photography business, and I can’t even fathom running my biz without this client management software. It is a paid service but the sanity and time you gain from not having to look for that one “important email” or a “client who wanted that turtle pattern”… - you get what I mean!

With Dubsado, you can: send contracts for digital signing, send invoices and payment plans, send canned emails, schedule appointments and events, keep track of your income and expenses - it’s all built in! I’m sure I’m missing lots of features but these are the ones I use every single day.

Check it out and sign up for a trial here: Dubsado

It’s 100% free for the first three clients and if you do decide to subscribe to this amazing service, you will get 20% off your first month or year with my Dubsado promo code:

dubsadonlp

Humaaans

Can’t draw humans but still want them in your designs? Pablo Stanley has created a super cool set of interchangeable elements, which allows you to create human illustrations with Humaaans! The Humaaans library is under license CC0 , which means it's Free for Commercial and Personal Use: no need to credit, license, or anything. The only catch here is that you have to run certain apps/software ( Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch) to use this asset or use the online builder on GitHub. You can also download some pre-mixed flat file options.