Hey Reader
Happy Thursday!
Easter always puts me into spring cleaning mode. Which means getting rid of stuff we don’t need anymore, which means stuff my teens have outgrown.
My oldest son needed some new bedding.
So I headed out to my favorite stores to see what I could find to update his room.
At one point, I was standing in front of a bunch of different sheet sets and I had one of those weird little moments where my designer brain completely hijacked what should have been a simple errand.
My son is all about the outdoors. But he likes muted colors. Minimal patterns. I mean, maybe he’d let me put one pattern somewhere in his room. His love of the outdoors includes bugs and plants, but he wouldn’t be caught dead sleeping on a duvet covered in bright florals.
My youngest daughter? Complete opposite. The more patterns, the better. Bold colors. Mix them, layer them, pile them on. If it comes in seven coordinating prints, she wants all seven.
And I stood there thinking: this is exactly what I try to explain to designers about knowing their ICA.
Because your Ideal Customer isn’t just a demographic checkbox. We’re designing for real people with real preferences who are looking for real solutions.
Two weeks ago on my blog, The Repeat Report, I talked about knowing your buyer’s language and why it’s important. If you didn’t read it yet, it’s right here. This week, we’re going one layer deeper.
Turns out, the difference between what my son wants on his bed and what my daughter wants? That’s pretty much the difference between, say, designing for quilters and designing for home decor.
Night and day. Let me show you what I mean.
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Julie Storie – Silly Goose Summer
The Name Alone Is a Marketing Strategy Sunglasses-wearing geese on floaties, eating ice cream, living their absolute best beach life — this is the pattern that makes someone stop scrolling and immediately send it to their group chat. The concept is doing heavy lifting here, and that's the point. A strong character with a strong personality is half the battle.
Classic Toss Repeat with Character Depth Multiple poses, multiple props, consistent style — this is how you build a character-based toss that feels rich without feeling cluttered. Every goose has a personality. That's not accidental, that's craft.
Great for Kidswear, Gifting & Novelty Licensing Beach bags, kids' swimwear, gift wrap, novelty tees, pool towels. The kind of design that has a built-in buyer before it even hits the shop.
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Kristen Rosas – Paris Toile
Manifesting in Blue and White Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, little café storefronts, poodles — Kristen literally said she's "manifesting a trip to France one brush stroke at a time" and honestly, same. The toile format gives it that timeless editorial quality that never goes out of style.
Toile Repeat Done Right Single color on cream, varied landmark scales, loose illustrative linework. It's got the heritage feel of classic toile with a fresher, more personal hand to it. That's a hard balance to hit.
Great for Home Décor, Stationery & Apparel Throw pillows, shower curtains, tote bags, gift wrap, kitchen textiles. Paris toile has a permanent fan base — and a fresh illustrated take on it? That's a smart, commercially savvy move.
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Jillian Anderson – Market Bicycle
Quiet Storytelling on a Dark Ground Bicycles loaded with market baskets, strawberries, pears, flowers — this one tells a whole story without saying a word. The navy ground gives it depth and a little bit of European evening light energy. It feels like a farmers market right before closing time, in the best way.
Dense Layered Toss with Narrative Motifs Multiple motif types working together — bicycles as anchors, produce and florals as fillers. The scale variation keeps the eye moving without anything fighting for attention.
Great for Kitchen Textiles, Totes & Home Décor Tea towels, aprons, market bags, kitchen wallpaper, gift wrap. The kind of pattern that makes someone feel like they have taste just for owning it.
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Tip #1: Each market has its own rules.
This is one of those things that seems obvious once someone explains it, but nobody ever does.
Most designers start out creating patterns they love, then go looking for somewhere to submit them. And that’s fine when you’re finding your footing. But if you want to move from hobby to pro, you have to flip that around and design intentionally.
If you haven’t spent time inside a specific market yet, you might not realize just how different the rules are.
Here’s what I mean.
Collection size depends on your ideal customer
Aunt Millie is a quirky quilter. She is unmarried, but she loves her extended family almost as much as she loves doing puzzles. If you’re designing quilting fabric, you might need to get to know Aunt Millie. But even if Aunt Millie isn’t your quilter ICA, you’re going to need to know something about quilters. Like, if you design for them, you need to design a pretty big collection. We’re talking 8, 12, or even 20 patterns and blenders in a single collection.
If you’re the type of pattern designer who makes large collections, Aunt Millie is interested in your work. She loves patterns and she thinks of quilts as giant, creative puzzles. She considers it a personal challenge to use all of the patterns in a collection. Aunt Millie loves mixing and matching, cutting and piecing. Your collection has to give her enough variety to work with across the whole quilt because otherwise it’s like giving her a puzzle with missing pieces.
Now Inez, who works in home decor, is different. She is looking for coordinating home decor for a client.
What does that mean for you? She’s is looking for one bold print (hero) and a few other coordinates to compliment the hero. Inez isn’t going to use more than 3-4 patterns total for the entire room.
It makes sense. I mean, home decor patterns are placed across different objects in a room: a throw pillow here, a set of curtains there, a duvet across the bed. Four coordinating patterns is plenty when each one gets its own surface especially if Inez has got her eye on some wallpaper.
This is why knowing your ICA - as a person - makes such a big difference for you as a creative entrepreneur.
If you haven’t developed your Ideal Customer Avatar, I got you. Take a look at my free email course. It walks you through the steps you need to take to get to know your ICA. It’s called Art Biz Abcs and you can sign up for it here 👉 Art Biz Abcs.
Advice like “pick your market.” And “do market research” sounds so boring and so not what creatives want to spend time doing. But the thing is, getting to know your ICA can be fun and creative. You have an imagination and you will probably be better at actually “knowing” your ideal customer than most corporate types.
Tip #2: Your color palette tells a story. Make sure it's the right one.
Let’s go back to Aunt Millie for a second.
Loves quilts, loves puzzles, loves putting things together. Well, here’s a new development: her niece Anthea was just born.
And Anthea’s parents are really into all things British. Like, properly into it. Think red telephone boxes, Paddington Bear, a slight obsession with the royal family.
Aunt Millie knows what fabric she needs: something saturated, something cheerful, something with tonal range. She needs options — light values, dark values, warm tones, cool tones — because she’s going to cut all of it up and piece it back together into something that tells a story about little Anthea’s heritage.
A pale, muted, monochromatic collection? Beautiful. But not for Aunt Millie right now.
Now let’s check in on Inez.
Inez works in home decor. Her clients are a family who just left the suburbs and moved into an old farmhouse in a rural area — and they are exhausted. Not just from the move. From everything. From the noise, the decisions, the scroll, the overstimulation of modern life. They chose that farmhouse on purpose. They want warmth. Quiet. A place to actually unplug.
What they do not want is a bold post-modern wall that shouts at them.
Inez isn’t shopping by trend report. She’s shopping for a feeling — a domestic sanctuary, a soft, warm sweater-y feel. Her colors are going to be warm and earthy and restrained. Nothing jarring. Nothing competing. Just… peace.
Here’s what I want you to notice.
Aunt Millie and Inez might both buy from the same collection. But they’re not going to buy yours if you don’t have them in mind.
Please understand that I’m not talking about abstract stuff like trend forecasting or color theory. I’m talking about making the jump to real people with real needs.
When your ICA is a real human being — not an abstract ‘target market’ — the decisions around your process become clearer.
Ask yourself: what’s my client’s story right now? (Give him or her a name.) What do they want to feel when they walk into their kitchen? What do they want to feel when they work with your designs?
Aunt Millie is celebrating a new baby who’s going to grow up knowing where she comes from. Give her the colors for that.
Inez’s clients just traded chaos for calm. Give her the colors for that too.
“But Mandy, what if I don’t know my ICA well enough to answer those questions?”
That’s exactly what my tech tip is for. Let’s get into it.
Build your swipe file for free. In 5 minutes.
I want to talk about market research for a second, because I think a lot of designers overcomplicate this.
They hear “market research” and immediately think they need a spreadsheet, a color analysis tool, a Pinterest premium account, and a subscription to some trend forecasting service that costs $400 a year.
Nope.
You need an app you already have on your phone. That’s it.
I’m talking about Google Keep (Android) or Apple Notes (iPhone). Free. Already there. You’re basically already using it to save your grocery list and random thoughts at 11pm. Let’s put it to work.
What is a swipe file and why do you need one?
A swipe file is just a collection of inspiration you save before you start designing — so your creative decisions are grounded in what’s actually happening in the market, not just what’s in your head.
The problem most designers have isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s designing in a vacuum and then being surprised when their work doesn’t connect with a specific market. A swipe file closes that gap.
And the best swipe file is the one you actually use. Which means it has to be dead simple to add to and easy to find when you need it. Google Keep and Apple Notes both live on your phone, which means you can add to them anytime — while you’re pinning on Pinterest or walking through a park on a Saturday afternoon.
Here’s how to set it up:
Step 1: Create four notes.
- Fabric Trends: Screenshots of bestselling fabric collections, farmer’s markets, quilt shows, photos from actual fabric in fabric stores, anything that gives you an idea of what is selling right now.
- Home Decor Trends: Go out to stores like HomeGoods, Target, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie Home, or whatever brands sit in your target market. Take photos of anything that shows you what colors and aesthetics are moving product.
- Color Inspo: Unplug and look for colors in real life. Spring flowers in bloom in your yard, your teen’s group prom photo, summer fruit. This is your visual color vocabulary.
- Competitor Collections: Save collections from designers you admire or who are succeeding in markets you want to enter. Study the structure: How many patterns? What’s the hero? How do the blenders relate? What’s the color story?
Step 2: Pin them to the top.
In Apple Notes, swipe right on the note to pin it. In Google Keep, click the thumbtack icon. Now they’re always at the top when you open the app — no hunting, no forgetting they exist.
Step 3: Start adding to them immediately.
Step 4: Use it before you start designing.
PRO TIP: Before you begin any new collection, open your swipe file and spend 10 minutes looking through the relevant notes. Let it recalibrate your eye to what the market actually looks like — not just what’s in your head from the last thing you made.
That’s it. Simple so you’ll use it.
“But Mandy, I already follow a million accounts and save posts all over the place.”
Yeah. Me too. But here’s the thing, that’s not a swipe file. That’s a hunting expedition. If you pin a note, you can search in ten seconds.
Bonus move: When you save something to your swipe file, add one sentence about why you saved it. “❤️ color palette” “home decor mood = peace.” Later those notes turn into market intelligence. |
Alright, let's bring it home
Aunt Millie is out there right now, probably surrounded by fabric swatches and dreaming about snuggling her newborn niece. She’s looking for fabric that gives British and Paddington Bear vibes.
Inez’s clients just carried the last box into that farmhouse and exhaled for the first time in months. They don’t want to make any more decisions. They want someone to hand them something beautiful and quiet and right.
Both of them are worth designing for.
But you can’t design well for either of them if you don’t actually know them — not as a market segment, not as a customer avatar on a worksheet, but as a human being with a specific life and a specific need right now.
That’s the whole point of everything we covered today. The collection size, the coordination, the color story — none of it is arbitrary. It all flows from understanding the person on the other end.
Start your swipe file. Fill it with the world your ICA actually lives in. And let that world give you design clarity.
