2024 Year Review

I always think it’s helpful as designers to think about what went well throughout the year and what didn’t.

I’m committing to myself that every year, I will write here on the blog about what I was pleased with and what I had hoped to accomplish but didn’t.

What went well in 2024

1. I hosted two free colour palette masterclass trainings, in June and September. The first one in June was originally planned for March, but due to some tech problems at the last minute and then imposter syndrome taking over plus some perfectionism as well, it took me until June to get it launched and offer to those signed up.

While it would be easy to say that this was a failure to not offer this when I wanted to was, I was happy to get it out in the world, even if the timescale was slightly different to what I had originally planned. I’m hosting the next one this month on January 20th (next week!), so if you’re interested, hop on the waiting list here.

2. I opened a Spoonflower shop. This is something that has been on my to-do list for over a year, and in April, I finally got around to opening it. As of January 2025, I now have nearly 370 patterns and my aim is to have 1500 patterns by the end of the year, which is a realistic goal (I think!). 😬

3. I cut down on the amount of subscriptions I have to other artist, designers and creative memberships that I, like many designers, have signed up to to only to find that I didn’t have the time to devote to consuming the content I’d paid for. My aim this year is to be part of much fewer memberships, but have the time to really absorb the information to make bigger improvements in my designs.

4. I redesigned my website to better reflect who I am as a designer and my personal style. Like any designer, I’m always tweaking and changing little things here and there to make it even better and it’s always a constant work in progress!

5. I’ve made lots of new patterns this year as a result of taking part in online challenges. It’s always good fun to take part in these and consider things that you may have not have done before.

6. I took part in the 12 days Christmas art challenge by the art agency @jehane_ltd. Although this was an illustration challenge only and patterns are my specialty, I do really enjoy creating illustration work, so I took part to both practise my skills and because you never know what the future may hold, if I need good illustration skills for a future project! It was super fun seeing how everyone interpreted the same prompts but in totally different ways.

7. I learnt how to manage my time better as a designer and content creator. Being able to create pattern designs is pure joy for me, though only serves as small proportion on my designer role. So many other tasks, projects and duties also demand my time and attention, and while it would be lovely to say I spend all day just making pretty patterns, this sadly is not the reality. Once you factor in; social media posts for several channels, newsletters, freebies, guides, website updating, pitching to companies, writing and creating content for the masterclass trainings, creating and maintaining a free designer resource library, marketing… it can sometimes feel like the time left over for creating patterns is very small.

As a designer, we wear many hats so to be able to switch from one task to another quickly and efficiently is super important. I now batch all of my tasks and split them into chunks so I can focus on just one task/project or job at a time, meaning that I have much better concentration and can get more done in less time. I’m also using a monthly and weekly planner to keep me on track and spend a few mins at the end of each week going through the tasks I need to complete each month to ensure I can complete them.

8. I opened an online shop with a few pdf guides and resources for designers. While this only opened on 20th December and therefore technically counts as 2024, it was at the very end of the year and at the time of writing this post, there are only 5 pdf’s in there, though it’s a start! I’m glad I managed to do it and I’m excited about sharing other pdf guides that I know will help other designers and creatives in their careers and personal projects.

What didn’t go well

1. I spent a lot of time in 2024 creating new patterns that I pitched to companies and while I received more replies that I had anticipated (about 30%), it’s always hard to either not hear back from some or get a “thanks, but we’re not interested right now” reply. It can be so hard emotionally to spend so much time on designs that you’ve poured your heart and soul into to only get a handful of replies.

While it was incredibly frustrating and felt like a big waste of time to have pitched to a lot of companies, instead it made me re-evaluate what I’m spending my time and focus on.

I decided that I would spend more time and effort on:

• creating new patterns for my print on demand sites like Spoonflower, Redbubble and Wovenmonkey to increase the sales I already have on there

• spend more time on making illustrations that I’d like to turn into stickers for sale in an Etsy shop

For example, since opening my Spoonflower shop in April 2024, I’ve sold quite a few designs, so it just goes to show that while you may not get the response you wanted from something, there is always another path ready to be explored that may even be better than what you had originally planned on.

2. I had plans to launch my very first online course in the summer of 2024, but sadly time did not allow me to get this done. I hadn’t planned my time well or structured how I would complete everything I needed to. Being my first course, I underestimated just how long it would take along with having to learn the tech side of creating a course. This in itself was/has been a steep learning curve and one which I’m still learning, as I would really like to share my knowledge of colour palettes with the world as I know it would help so many people.

I have since moved the date to (hopefully) launching in May/June this year, if I can get everything done. Being a perfectionist also doesn’t help as I want everything to be perfect before I open it for enrolment. I need to remember and accept that ‘progress is better than perfection’. Watch this space…

3. While I’ve had a few social media channels for a while now, I really struggle with knowing what to post. Can you relate?! I haven’t always been as consistent posting as I would like. Some weeks I do well and post 3-6 times, other weeks not as much.

Like is anyone really interested in how I created a pattern?! It may seem weird to some, but to me it feels like gloating or bragging about how I drew some motifs and then rearranged them into a repeating tile. It feels weird just typing this as I think of it, yet I also know that I LOVE knowing how other designers work and adore watching videos of them working. I know deep down that I need to get over my fear of sharing and just see what happens. I also need to plan in advance what I’ll share so I can prepare any images or video content ahead of time.

4. I also had plans to create my 1st Skillshare class, which again I didn’t have time for. In order to be accepted onto their platform you have to submit a short video and be accepted by them beforehand.

This is good news for those who buy a membership to their site to watch the classes as they are insist on good quality classes which can only be a good thing for everyone. Although I wanted to make a class for their platform, I didn’t make any plans on when I would do this and certainly didn’t make time in my general day to day, so it’s no surprise that it didn’t get done. I hadn’t planned for it!

As of January 2025, I have 4-5 class ideas and have been thinking about which idea I’ll like to take forward and create a class with. I know that I’ll need to plan ahead and make time in my schedule to actually get this done, otherwise it won’t happen…

Changes I’m making in 2025

1. Being more organised and planning ahead! Detailing exactly what my tasks, projects and goals are, and to give myself deadlines to keep myself accountable and focused.

2. Be more focused on my goals as I work towards them. I’m planning on having less goals so I can devote more time to them = higher probability of good results.

What changes are you planning to make in 2025? Let me know in the comments below! :)

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my year in review and what went well and what didn’t. I hope that you’ll view your own year as lessons learned as you come into 2025 with more life experience and more clarity on where you’re heading.