Hey Reader

Can I ask you something?

When someone who would love your patterns goes looking for them — are they actually finding you?

Not just anyone. The right someone. The quilter hunting for the perfect backing fabric to finish her weekend project. The homeowner who wants a modern floral for her newly painted reading nook. The art director sourcing prints for a children’s apparel line.

Here’s what most designers don’t realize: those three people are not searching the same way. They’re not using the same words. They’re not even in the same headspace when they open a search bar.

And if you want to be found, you need to make sure you’re speaking the same language.

That’s what we’re getting into this week — how different buyers search, why it matters, and what to actually do about it.

But before we go there, here are three designs that I found this week:

Claire's Creative Forest – Dark Botanical Moody, Lush, Utterly Confident Dark ground, wildflowers, hidden fauna, and a color palette that somehow feels both forest-at-midnight and totally spring-ready. This is the pattern that walks into the room and everyone turns to look. Dense Half-Drop with Botanical Layering Multiple scales, overlapping elements, deep shadow tones — this is advanced pattern composition made to look effortless. The dark ground does the heavy lifting, letting every bloom and leaf pop without competing. Great for Apparel, Stationery & Home Décor Velvet cushions, journal covers, gift wrap, feminine apparel. Cottagecore girlies and dark academia kids are both adding this to cart. Show them some love on IG

Anette Helberg – Retro Geometric Because Florals Aren't the Only Game in Town Here's why I picked this one — because sometimes we need a reminder that surface pattern design is so much bigger than flowers. Geometric, retro-mod shapes in navy, pink, and grey? This is bold, graphic, and completely different from everything else in this roundup — on purpose. Mirrored Block Repeat with Graphic Punch Symmetrical, structured, satisfying. The mirrored tulip-like forms create an almost tile or textile-weave feel. Strong enough for interiors, playful enough for fashion. Great for Upholstery, Swimwear & Stationery Retro swimwear, throw pillow fabric, bold wallpaper, book covers. If your design brain only speaks floral, let this one stretch it a little. Your portfolio will thank you. Show them some love on IG

Julie Erin Designs – Vintage Floral Stripe Grandmacore Is Having a Moment and We're Here for It Soft yellows, delicate scattered blooms, classic stripe structure — this is your grandmother's china pattern in the best possible way. Quiet, considered, completely charming. Stripe Foundation with Tossed Floral Overlay The stripe gives it backbone, the florals soften it, and the result is a design that feels both structured and romantic. Two techniques, one very cohesive pattern. Great for Apparel, Bedding & Gift Wrap Pajamas, spring dresses, tissue paper, vintage-style stationery. Delicate without being precious — and very, very sellable right now. Show them some love on IG

Tip #1: The Search Intent You're Probably Missing

Here’s something I wish someone had spelled out for me earlier in my career.

There isn’t one type of buyer for your patterns. There are several — and they don’t just speak different languages. They search with completely different intent. Different goals, different starting points, different words in the search bar.

Understanding that difference is what determines whether you show up for the right people — or just sort of float around hoping the algorithm figures it out. (Pro Tip: The algorithm can find you more easily if you turn your Instagram grid into a searchable portfolio. If you need help doing that, I’ve got you covered in my Get Discovered on Instagram course.)

Let me walk you through the three main buyer types, and the search intent behind each one.

Buyer #1: The Maker — Crafters, Sewists, and Quilters

Search intent: Project-based.

This is the woman who just saved a pattern on Pinterest for a reversible bucket hat and now needs fabric to make eight of them for Christmas. She’s not thinking about your design process or your color theory. She has a thing to make and she needs fabric that works for it.

She types things like:

• “quilt backing fabric”
• “organic cotton fabric for nursery”
• “unique fabric for stuffed animal”
• “swimwear fabric with stretch”

Her search starts with the project. She knows exactly what she’s making — she just needs the right fabric to do it.

This is the buyer your Spoonflower tags need to speak to directly. If your tags describe what your pattern looks like but say nothing about what someone could make with it, she’ll scroll right past you without ever knowing your design was exactly what she needed.

(Tip #2 is entirely about how to fix that.)

Buyer #2: The Home Decorator — DIYers and Small-Scale Designers

Search intent: Aesthetic-based.

This buyer is creating a feeling. Maybe she’s renovating her living room and wants something custom for throw pillows. Maybe she’s an independent interior decorator sourcing fabric for a residential client. Maybe she’s a DIYer who’s tired of what she can find at the fabric store and wants something that actually matches her vision.

She searches by mood, style, and space:

• “Traditional English cottagecore wildflower”
• “Moody dark floral Victorian wallpaper peel and stick”
• “Watercolor eucalyptus leaves soft sage green”
• “Scandinavian geometric monochrome”
• “Grandmillennial chinoiserie bird and vine trellis”

She’s thinking about rooms, feelings, and real people. Not projects. Longevity, not seasons. She wants something that lives on a sofa for five years and still looks intentional.

If you design for home décor, her aesthetic vocabulary belongs in your tags, your shop bio, and how you talk about your work on social media. She’s not going to find you through project language — she’s going to find you through vibe language.

Buyer #3: The Licensing Company

Search intent: Solution-based.

This is the art director at a home goods brand, a stationery company, a children’s apparel label, or a gift manufacturer. She has a product line to fill, a trend report open in another tab, and a deadline.

She is not browsing. She is sourcing. And she’s not thinking about individual patterns — she’s thinking about whether your work solves her seasonal problem.

Her language is industry language:

• “Digital watercolor botanical illustrator for licensing”
• “Whimsical nursery and kids textile illustrator”
• “Trend-forward kitchen and tabletop pattern designer”
• “Artist for exclusive pattern design commission”

She wants to know your work is professionally executed, trend-relevant, and ready to drop into a product line. She’s buying a solution, not a pretty pattern.

If licensing is your goal, your portfolio, your pitch emails, and your professional social presence need to speak this language. Not crafter language. Not decorator language. Industry language.

Why Search Intent Changes Everything

You might be thinking: “Okay, but can’t I just use all the tags and cover all my bases?”

For Spoonflower, yes — and Tip #2 is going to show you exactly how to do that systematically for your maker and decorator buyers.

But tags are only part of it.

Search intent should also shape all of your content — your social captions, your portfolio intro, your shop bio, your pitch emails. Every time you write something about your work, you’re either speaking to one of these buyers or you’re not.

The designers who see traction across multiple revenue streams aren’t making more art. They’re code-switching — adjusting their language based on who they’re talking to and where. A post about “this print would make the most adorable quilting blender” is speaking to the maker. A portfolio intro that mentions “spring collections available for licensing” is speaking to the art director. A caption about “the perfect fabric for a boho-inspired bedroom refresh” is speaking to the decorator.

Same pattern. Three different messages. Three different buyers who now feel like you’re talking directly to them.

That’s the shift.

You don’t need different patterns for different buyers. You need to understand their intent — and meet them there.

Tip #2: The Use-Case Tag System

Okay. So now you understand the three search intents — project-based, aesthetic-based, solution-based — and why the same pattern needs different language depending on who’s looking for it.

Tip #1 was the why. This is the how.

Specifically, let’s zoom in on the maker — the crafter, sewist, and quilter — because this is where Spoonflower lives, and this is where a lot of designers are quietly leaving sales on the table. The fix is a consistent, repeatable system for making sure your listings show up when she searches.

You need a consistent, repeatable system for applying use-case tags — because trying to think through every possibility every single time gets exhausting fast, and then we stop doing it.

Enter The Use-Case Tag System.

This isn’t complicated. It’s a personal reference list you build once and use every time you upload. Think of it as a tagging cheat sheet, sorted by the type of design.

Build Your Tag Bank

Start by creating a simple running document (Notes app, Google Doc, a Notion page — whatever you’ll actually open). Then organize it like this:

Florals / Botanicals: Children’s dress, girls’ apparel, quilting fabric, baby quilt, nursery décor, tote bag, apron fabric, table runner, gift wrap

Geometrics / Abstracts: Quilting blender, filler print, backing fabric, low-volume print, minimalist home décor, pillow cover, bedding

Animals / Novelty: Children’s apparel, kids’ room décor, Halloween costume fabric, tote bag, gift wrap, craft fabric

Bold / Tropical / Bright: Swimwear fabric, beach bag, outdoor cushion, tote bag, cover-up fabric

Seasonal / Holiday: Gift wrap, holiday décor, table runner, stocking fabric, Christmas apparel, quilting

You get the idea. This is your starting framework — adjust it to match your actual style and niche.

Now when you go to upload a new design, you’re not reinventing the wheel every time. You just look at your tag bank, grab the applicable use-case tags for that design type, and add them alongside your descriptive tags.

A Note on Specificity

More specific usually beats more general when it comes to use-case tags.

“Children’s dresses” will perform better than just “children’s.” “Quilting blenders” is more targeted than “quilting fabric.” “Kitchen décor” pulls more focused buyers than “home décor.”

Think about how the actual buyer would phrase her search. She’s not browsing broadly — she has a project. The more specifically you match what she’s typing, the better your chances of showing up right in front of her.

If you need help “getting to know” your buyers, sign up for my free 5-day email course that will help you define your ideal client: Master the ABC’s of Your Creative Art Business. Please do yourself and your business a favor and take care of these details. I promise, it will make a difference.

The Double-Tag Rule

Here’s how I think about it: every pattern should have at least two types of tags working for it at the same time — descriptive tags and use-case tags.

Descriptive tags tell the algorithm what your pattern is. Use-case tags tell the algorithm where your pattern belongs.

You need both. Neither one alone is enough.

The patterns that sit unsold on Spoonflower for months? Often, they have one kind but not the other. Beautiful, accurate descriptive tags and zero use-case context. Or they’ve been tagged for a project that doesn’t actually match the design.

Get both working together, and you’re speaking the full language of the search engine — and the shopper.

Stop Guessing What Buyers Search — Let the Data Tell You

So now you know why use-case tags matter and you have a framework for adding them. But here’s the part most designers skip entirely:

Actually finding out what words your specific buyers are already typing.

Because “children’s dress fabric” might not be the phrase they’re using. It might be “girls’ dress yardage” or “dress fabric floral” or something else entirely. Assumptions about buyer language are a starting point — not a strategy.

Here’s how to find the real terms, using two tools you already have access to:

Tool 1: Spoonflower’s Tag Analytics

Spoonflower gives you visibility into how your existing designs are performing in search — including which tags are driving traffic to your shop.

How to access it:

1. Log into your Spoonflower seller account
2. Go to My Dashboard
3. Click on Analytics
4. Click on Tags to see which tags are generating views and clicks

What you’re looking for: which tags are actually driving traffic? If “quilting blender” is consistently outperforming “geometric pattern” on your small-scale designs, that tells you something important about how your buyers are searching.

Do this across several of your designs to start seeing patterns (pun intended). The tags that show up repeatedly in your high-traffic designs? Those are the ones worth prioritizing on your new uploads.

Tool 2: Etsy Autocomplete

This one surprises people, but Etsy’s search bar is one of the most useful free research tools you have — even if you’re primarily focused on Spoonflower.

Here’s why it works: Etsy autocomplete is powered by actual buyer search behavior. When you start typing a phrase and watch what the dropdown suggests, those suggestions are based on what real buyers are typing right now.

How to use it:

1. Open Etsy (you don’t need an account for this)
2. Start typing in the search bar: “fabric for…” or “children’s fabric…” or “quilting fabric…”
3. Watch what the autocomplete suggests and write down every variation

You’ll quickly start to see buyer phrasing patterns you’d never have guessed on your own. “Fabric for baby shower gift.” “Summer dress fabric floral.” “Fabric for quilts with cats.” These are real searches from real buyers.

Take those exact phrases back to your Spoonflower tagging and incorporate them. You’re not guessing anymore — you’re working with real data.

Put It Together

Spend 20 minutes this week doing both:

1. Pull up three of your Spoonflower designs and check the tag stats. Write down which use-case tags are getting traction.
2. Open Etsy and type three phrases related to your niche. Write down the autocomplete suggestions.

You’ll come away with a much smarter tag bank than the one you started with — and a clearer picture of how your buyers are actually searching.

That’s your Tuesday research date. Put it on the calendar.

Okay, here’s your takeaway this week:

Getting found by the right people isn’t about posting more or uploading more.

It’s about understanding what your buyers are actually looking for — and making sure your words match their intent when they go searching.

The quilter is looking for a project solution. The decorator is looking for a vibe. The art director is looking for a seasonal answer. None of them are wrong. They’re just different. And once you understand that, you stop writing one generic description for everyone and start speaking directly to whoever you’re trying to reach.

Speaking of finding things, you can find a lot of great free information at my blog, The Repeat Report. Have a look.

And remember - start with one design. Update the tags. Then do it again.

That’s how you get found.

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