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Design and Shine will bring you conversations about the creative design process, being a successful creative entrepreneur, stepping into the mindset of a successful designer and all things pattern design. Hosted by Rachelle Holowko who is a surface pattern designer, artist, educator and leader of a beautiful global community of designers and creatives.
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If you're struggling to make your color palettes work, this episode is for YOU! In this episode of the Design & Shine Podcast, I’m breaking down the BIGGEST mistakes designers make with color and sharing my top tips to help you create stunning, cohesive palettes that POP! Listen to this episode to learn: The importance of colour in design and the p…
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Last year I came very close to experiencing burnout in my surface pattern design business... I'd got to the point where things had begun to feel too heavy, hard, and demanding. Everything seemed to be taking me further and further away from the things that mattered the most to me, from my daily art practice to time with my family. When I started to…
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As 2023 comes to a close, I reflect back on the huge changes that I made in my business this year in this final podcast episode before I take an extended summer break at the beach with my family and new puppy. I share my process of looking back to assess my goals, how I question my progress, and why I believe it's so important to take time to do th…
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When I left full-time employment as a surface pattern designer, I could not understand why I found it so incredibly difficult to design with the same confidence and ease as I did for my clients... Despite years of design experience and confidence working to a design brief, when I decided to work for myself I immediately fell into a ''surviving crea…
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Recently, my family and I invited a new member into the family - a PUPPY!!! His name is Juno. And while it's been a LOT of fun these last few weeks getting to know him, it hasn't been as much fun training him not to wee in the house! 😅 But it has been interesting to watch him learn. It's made me reflect on how - with anything new we learn - our…
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While our creativity is a beautiful expression of our own personal unique gifts and ideas, it can also carry with it a lot of things that can end up hindering our progress... Things like criticism, self-doubt, and perfectionism. So in this week's Design & Shine podcast episode, I explore why it's important to cultivate and nurture self-compassion. …
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If you love what you're creating but you're facing a lot of failures, rejections, resistance, and you're hearing ''no thank-you'' so often, you may start to wonder how you're going to keep going... How are you going to stay persistent if you're constantly facing obstacles? This is what I want to explore with you in this episode: The power of stayin…
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I believe many creatives underestimate how helpful gratitude can be toward helping them reach success... It's a simple mindset shift that can make a BIG difference - if you know how to use it in how you approach your creative work. I share several ways you can start practicing gratitude in your creative business in this week's Design & Shine podcas…
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Are you a Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic learner? Not sure what those are? Listen to this episode of The Design & Shine podcast to find out! I dive into what these 3 different learning styles mean and share how to tell which one you may be. Knowing which one is your predominant learning style may help you get better outcomes with your creative wo…
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I used to struggle to show up online in the way that I knew I needed to for my business... I consciously knew I needed to create videos, take selfies, and be visible to my audience... But subconsciously, the idea of showing up online made me feel vulnerable, exposed, and unsafe. And I wasn't even aware that this was the case until I started to addr…
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Do you worry that your creative work is just not all that unique? And do you worry that it'll never stand out and allow you to have the thriving creative career that you dream about?😣 It's a challenging belief, but what I've noticed lately is that it's the most common limiting belief among creative entrepreneurs. So in this episode of the Design & …
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Are you putting a lot of pressure on yourself to make things PERFECT? Many creatives I know get stuck on trying to make even the smallest design details perfect. It slows down their progress as a creative designer and as a business owner. So in this Design & Shine podcast episode, I share a few tips on how to overcome perfectionism including: Launc…
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In this episode, we unravel what procrastination really is, revealing its surprising connection to fear. I'll explain how procrastination might be rooted in your apprehensions about failure, judgment, or even success. I share practical strategies to conquer procrastination: break tasks into bite-sized chunks to tackle overwhelm and embrace imperfec…
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If you'd like to unlock your true creative potential and build a thriving creative business, you may be surprised to learn just how important it is to develop compassion and resilience. As creatives, we're often quite sensitive people, so expressing ourselves through our art can be quite a vulnerable thing to do when we begin to put ourselves out i…
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If you want true and lasting change in your life, it's not enough just to know what your limiting beliefs are... You also need to how to change them so that you make the changes in your life that you want to see! So in this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast, I share: What limiting beliefs are and how they hold us back, influence us, and shape o…
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Recently a student of mine came to me and said she was feeling uninspired and having a hard time knowing how to get started designing. It wasn't that she didn't want to do the work, but that when she sat down to do it, nothing would come from it. I've felt this way many times myself, and if you're a creative artist of any kind, you've probably felt…
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Imagine if you could STOP overthinking your creative design work... No more being critical of your work... No more stopping and starting over... Just intuitive creativity that makes time feel like it has stopped and your artistic output flow... Sounds good, right? This is what's known as a creative flow state, and in creative work like surface patt…
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There's a specific difference in thinking between surface pattern designers who get stuck and those who thrive... One way of thinking will keep you playing small, while the other will help you to grow as an artist, elevate your design process, and earn more from your business in the long term. Find out what that difference is in this episode of the…
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If you struggle with pricing your surface pattern design work you are not alone! It can be one of the hardest things to do when you are just getting started as a surface pattern designer, which is why pricing is one of the most common topics my students ask me about. So in this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast, I give you some guidelines for h…
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Are you worried that the surface pattern design market may be too oversaturated? This is a common concern that many of my surface pattern design students have, so I've shared my thoughts about it on this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast. I cover: How not to be taken advantage of in a crowded market Ensuring your work will stand out in an authe…
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No matter what kind of creative business owner you are, whether you are a surface pattern design business owner or not, you're often told there are certain ways you need to do things... And though you want to be successful and this external advice can be quite convincing - it's not always the right thing for YOU to do. This is what happened to me w…
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In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I welcome back Christine Rice, who is a social media manager for online businesses and she also runs a fantastic small Facebook group called marketing for creative and unconventional women. Christine and I talk all about a hot topic that I know a lot of surface pattern designers have trouble with and…
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In this episode of Design and Shine, we are going to be talking about something that is important to think about doing as you’re growing your surface pattern design business and that is creating an email list. Learn what one is, why you need one and whether it’s something you should consider creating.…
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On this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, we are going to be talking about some things to think about if you are not selling your designs. So if you’ve been working hard, you’ve been creating lots of designs and then you hear crickets then I want to give you a few things for you to ask yourself and consider.…
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In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I talk to Christine Rice, who is a social media manager for online businesses and she also runs a fantastic small Facebook group called marketing for creative and unconventional women. Christine and I talk all about Instagram for surface pattern designers and dive into: how to grow your audience how …
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In this episode of Design and Shine, we are going to talk about something a little different and that is trying to create work-life balance. Something I get asked a lot is how I manage to juggle work with family life and everything else in between so I'm going to give you a few tips that help me stay balanced and on track.…
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In this episode of Design and Shine, we talk about setting goals because it’s a really great way of keeping you on track and moving forwards so you achieve the results you want. We'll look at setting goals in 2 major areas so you can take the right steps towards your success.
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In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I talk to Australian textile designer and Illustrator Brook Gossen. And she creates really beautiful and colourful artwork and has a really fun and gorgeous brand. Brook didn't start her career as an artist but after working in a different area and having her family she felt was missing and that some…
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If you want to be a successful designer then one of the most important skills you need to develop is your critical design eye. In this podcast episode, we talk about your critical design eye, why it's so important and some tips for developing yours.
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In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I talk to Christine Rice, who is a social media manager for online businesses and she also runs a fantastic small Facebook group called marketing for creative and unconventional women. Christine and I dive into: what a funnel is and how it relates to social media for surface pattern designers a four-…
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In this podcast episode, I talk about investing in your surface pattern design business. I know it can be challenging for some people so we talk about why it's important, when you should invest and why should invest.
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In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I’m going to be talking to textile designer and creative director Penny Gale who is the founder of Fabriculture, a new, contemporary design brand with the purpose of helping young people learn about our most endangered native species. This is such an exciting brand and I absolutely love that Penny is…
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In this podcast episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Nerida Hansen about marketing strategies for surface artists. Nerida Hansen is the founder and creative director of Nerida Hansen Fabrics. Through her business, she supports and collaborates with independent artists and illustrators and she’s just launched a brand new app PatternField App …
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Do you feel overhelmed by marketing? In this episode of the Design and Shine Podcast, I talk about simplifying marketing for pattern designers. If you're starting out it can be hard hearing about all of the things that you should be doing and feeling like you need to be doing all of those things and then feeling super overwhelmed which usually resu…
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If you are wanting to start achieving your pattern design goals then it's really important to set some habits in place and start creating your daily art practice. If you want to be a successful designer and you want to be able to sell your work then set up a daily practice is a foundational step as it's going to help you grow, nurture and develop y…
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In this episode of Design and Shine, I talk to artist and surface pattern designer Lauren Lesley about finding your unique art style. We cover when you do and don't need to worry about when developing your own style, the mindset battles that are commonly faced and how to stay consistent. Lauren also shares her tips on sending your portfolio to clie…
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In this episode, I share some of my favourite tech tools that I use regularly within my surface pattern design business. You can download my Pattern Design Secrets eBook here
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If you want to be a successful designer then you need to start stepping up and doing the actions that a successful designer would do, starting with your thoughts and beliefs. In this episode, we are going to talk about how your negative self-talk is stopping you from being successful and how you can reframe your thoughts so you can reach your full …
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If you are wanting to create a successful design business you need to allocate time to business tasks but what happens when those business tasks take over and you no longer feel you have time for the design tasks? In this episode, I talk about how to fit in time for both business and design tasks. You can download my Pattern Design Secrets eBook he…
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In this podcast episode, I talk to surface pattern designer and illustrator Sheree Coleman. She shares with us how she is transitioning away from full-time work to building her brand Whimsy Kaleidoscope. We discuss how she got started, what led her to surface pattern design, how she gets clients and tips she has for other aspiring designers. Sheree…
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If you are starting to get your surface pattern design portfolio ready to send to clients and you're not sure what to or what not to include then this podcast episode is for you. I'll be talking through some tips that you may want to consider when preparing your portfolio.
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It's really important if you want to step up and stand out as a designer that you consider branding within your business. Branding includes the assets you use e.g. fonts, colours and logos etc. but it goes far beyond that. Branding also includes your unique voice and the way you show up in your business. In this podcast episode, we talk about the i…
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The importance of allocating time for business tasks in your surface pattern design business
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If you are a surface pattern designer who is wanting to get to the next level and move away from being a hobbyist to a successful designer who is selling their designs consistently with a regular income then you need to allocate time for business tasks. In this podcast episode, we talk about the importance of treating your design business as a busi…
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In this podcast episode, I interview Elizabeth Silver. Elizabeth Silver is a surface pattern designer who has been working in industry both in full-time roles as well as in her studio practice where she freelances and licenses her work. We talk all about licensing, freelancing and running a design practice and Elizabeth gives us her tips for aspiri…
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Are you ready to start promoting your portfolio but are not sure which website platform would suit you best? In this episode, we talk about a few different options and the pros and cons of each.
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If you've created a pattern design and can see that it's not quite working but are not sure why then you may be making one of these mistakes. In this episode, I share 5 of the biggest mistakes I see when people are creating their pattern designs.
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If you're a surface pattern designer you may be thinking about getting an agent to represent you. In this episode, we talk about the pros and cons of having an agent.
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There are lots of different options for you to sell your surface pattern designs. In this episode, I give you an overview of some of the popular ways that you can start selling your designs including licensing, freelancing and passive income streams.
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You may be creating the most beautiful, successful designs in your own unique style but that doesn't mean you will successfully sell your designs. In this episode, we look at mindset and identity and why it's so important in you becoming an accomplished designer.
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Part of your role as a surface pattern designer is creating pattern design collections. In this episode we look at what a collection is and some tips to get you started creating one.
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