HOW I BECAME A TEXTILE DESIGNER WORKING FOR MYSELF FOR 15 YEARS.

Looking for inspiration on your journey to becoming a textile designer or a surface pattern design? Here is my story of how I started out as a textile designer and my creative adventures I have had in the process so far over the last 15 years 🙂 I hope you find it inspiring.

In this video, I talk about how I became working for myself as a freelance vector repeat pattern surface pattern designer, licensing my work online, then creating a pattern design studio, and later an online school for beginner vector repeat pattern designers. What a journey! And, I feel that I am just beginning 🙂

I also share my own textile designer portfolio website, as well as 3 main lessons learned during my pattern design career as a self-taught professional textile designer. So excited to share my story with you, my creative friend.

MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:

Video: How I 200x my business

Oksancia’s Online Courses

Oksancia’s Pattern Design Portfolio

★ BONUS WORKBOOK: GROW YOUR PATTERN PORTFOLIO 15x FASTER: Want to learn my system for growing your repeat pattern portfolio 15x faster? Request my bonus eBook here.

How I became a textile designer working for myself for 15+ years.

I’m originally from Ukraine and have lived in a few different countries, including the Netherlands, but today I’m here to share my journey with you from self-taught artist to successful textile designer.

I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was always drawing and coming up with interesting illustrations. I was especially interested in poetry, literature, and children’s books, which eventually led me to study languages and literature. I even went on to earn two masters degrees, one in Ukraine and another in the Netherlands, where I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship.

Despite my love for literature and education, my heart has always been in the arts. After finishing my two masters, I decided to take a break and start illustrating and creating artwork. It was then that a friend of mine, Nastya, introduced me to microstock, which allows you to license and sell your digital art. I was intrigued and started drawing directly in Adobe Illustrator, and it wasn’t long before I started making a bit of side income from my illustrations.

My dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator soon became a reality when I was approached by a US publisher who found my microstock illustrations online. I went on to illustrate two published children’s books, and now, six years later, my daughter is even reading them in her kindergarten class. It’s a truly amazing feeling to connect with kids through my artwork, especially as a self-taught artist.

From Self-Taught Artist to Successful Repeat Pattern Designer: My Journey.

Fast forward a few years, and I now have a six-year-old daughter who reads books that I’ve illustrated. It’s truly a magical feeling to see her connect with my work, and even more so when I learned that my books were available in her local library.

However, my journey wasn’t always smooth sailing. I became interested in repeat pattern design and wanted to learn how to create them in Adobe Illustrator. The process was slow, frustrating, and the results were far from what I desired. I was about to give up when my husband, a physicist and software developer, stepped in.

Together, we figured out the software and developed a custom system for repeat pattern design. Instead of making one subpar pattern per week, I was now able to produce several high-quality patterns every day. This newfound ability allowed me to quickly fill up my portfolio, and before long, I was earning enough to support myself and my family through my creative work.

Over the next year, my income skyrocketed, and I was able to travel the world with my husband, visiting 24 countries and experiencing incredible adventures.

And to think, it all started with a simple passion for art and illustration. I never imagined that my work would be so well received and that people would still be licensing my very first repeat pattern design after all these years.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this journey, it’s that anything is possible if you never give up and always believe in yourself. So to all the aspiring artists and designers out there, keep creating and never let frustration get in the way of your dreams.

My journey from self-taught artist to textile designer has been a long and winding road, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I hope that my story inspires you to follow your dreams and to never give up on your passion for the arts. Thank you for joining me today and I look forward to sharing more of my journey with you in the future.

Thank you so much for watching!

Grow, love, and create. 

Oksancia