Hey Reader!
Most pattern designers I talk to are tracking their social media growth all wrong.
They're staring at follower counts, obsessing over how many likes their last post got, and feeling like failures because they "only" gained 10 new followers this month.
But!!! Those numbers are lying to you.
They're making you feel stuck when you're actually making progress. And they're keeping you from doing the one thing that will actually grow your business on social media.
So today, I'm sharing designs that caught my eye this week, two social media tips that I used when I started out, honestly even today, when it comes to approaching Instagram, and a Procreate hack that'll save you serious time.
Let's dive in.
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Floral Stripe by Teri:
- Style: Soft, vintage wallpaper vibes with a timeless vertical repeat that feels refined and flexible.
- Theme: A nod to English countryside florals that will never go out of style.
- Best for: Wallpaper, table linens, upscale stationery.
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Maya New by Mili & Wise:
- Style: Painterly and romantic, this loose floral has a hand-touched quality that feels boutique-ready.
- Theme: Fresh spring garden with a hint of nostalgia—perfect for transitional collections.
- Best for: Baby apparel, nursery decor, home textiles.
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Black Bird Fly by Angela Treat Lyon:
- Style: Bold, high-contrast folk art meets psychedelic symmetry—seriously eye-catching.
- Theme: Inspired by music, this one feels poetic and powerful, with a story behind the style.
- Best for: Silk scarves, art prints, statement fashion accessories.
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Most pattern designers are so focused on vanity metrics (followers! likes! views!) that they miss what actually matters.
Or they're so busy trying to make every post perfect that they never post enough to figure out what works.
Let's fix both of those problems right now.
Tip #1: Track your metrics in percentages, not absolute numbers.
Here's what I mean by this.
Let's say you have 500 followers and you post something that gets 50 likes. That's a 10% engagement rate, which is actually really good! But if you're only looking at the raw number (50 likes), it feels tiny. It feels like nobody cares.
Now fast forward six months. You've grown to 2,000 followers and that same type of post gets 120 likes. At first glance, 120 feels way better than 50, right? But actually, that's only a 6% engagement rate. Your engagement went down, even though the absolute number went up.
This is why percentages matter more than raw numbers.
The metrics that actually tell you the truth:
When you track percentages, you see the real story of your social media performance:
- Engagement rate shows you how connected your audience actually is to your content
- Follower growth rate (percentage increase month over month) shows you if your growth is accelerating or slowing down
- Profile visit rate (percentage of people who see your content and then visit your profile) tells you if your content is compelling enough to make people want to learn more
These percentages give you a true picture of your performance that isn't distorted by account size. A designer with 500 highly engaged followers is in a much better position than a designer with 5,000 followers who barely interact. The percentages tell you that truth. The raw numbers hide it.
Your challenge:
Stop comparing your 30 likes to someone else's 300 likes. Start asking: what percentage of my audience is engaging? And how can I increase that percentage over time?
Pick one metric to track this month, engagement rate is a great place to start, and watch what happens when you shift from "how many" to "what percentage."
Tip #2: Quality targeting, quantity testing.
I don’t believe that simply posting a LOT gets you where you want to go.
You could put up 100s of posts on social media and reach no one that matters. Quality posts that speak directly to YOUR ideal client are worth infinitely more than a bunch of posts with no defined person you’re talking to.
The only caveat is that you’d have to post enough to figure out which types of content actually attract the right buyers and licensors.
Think about it like this: if you post once a week, that's only 52 posts in a year.
That's 52 chances to discover what resonates with your ideal clients. But if you post five times a week, that's 260 posts in a year. That's 260 experiments to learn which content types attract the buyers and art directors you actually want to work with.
You don’t need to spend hours perfecting a carousel or making your grid look flawless.
Quality is about having the clarity on who you are speaking to.
Every post should have a clear ideal client avatar (ICA) in mind. Are you speaking to:
- Art directors at home goods brands looking for fresh florals?
- Small business owners who need custom patterns for their product lines?
- DIY-ers or crafters working on their home projects?
When your content speaks directly to a specific person with a specific need, that's quality. Even if the post itself is simple.
And what does quantity mean in this context?
Quantity is about posting enough variety to discover what attracts your right people.
You need volume to test:
- Do your ideal clients engage more with mockups or flat lays of finished patterns?
- Does sharing your design inspiration attract art directors or just other designers?
- Do behind-the-scenes glimpses of your workflow lead to DMs from potential clients?
When you only post once a week, you're not giving yourself enough data to learn what actually brings in the buyers and licensors you want.
You’d have to do both.
Post with clarity on who you're speaking to (quality in targeting), and post often enough to discover which content types attract those right people (quantity for testing).
Quality ensures you're speaking to the right audience. Quantity helps you figure out what that audience actually wants to see from you.
Today's hack is perfect for when you need to create coordinating designs fast, or when you want to test scale variations without redoing your entire pattern.
The Quick Isolation Trick for Pattern Variations
Say you've created a beautiful all-over pattern, but now a client asks if you can create a spot pattern using just a few of the motifs. Or maybe you want to test what one of your florals would look like larger without affecting your full repeat.
Instead of starting from scratch, use the Freehand Selection tool to your advantage:
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Select Your Element
- Tap the Selection tool (ribbon icon at the top)
- Choose "Freehand" mode
- Carefully trace around the motif you want to isolate
- Tap "Copy" then "Paste"
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Now Here's the Magic Part
- That element is now on its own layer, completely separate
- You can scale it up or down (use the Transform tool)
- Move it anywhere without disturbing your original pattern
- Change its color independently
- Duplicate it to create a coordinating spot pattern
Instead of going back to your original illustration files and rebuilding everything, you're working directly from your finished pattern. Need three different scales of the same motif for a collection?
Select, copy, paste, resize.
Done in minutes, not hours.
💡 Pro Tip: Once you've isolated an element you love, save it to its own file. Now you have a library of individual motifs you can mix and match across future projects. Build your own pattern element library as you go! |
That's all! Time to stop overthinking and start posting.
Your social media strategy isn't about having the most followers or creating the most perfect posts. It's about tracking the right metrics, posting with enough volume to learn what works, and refining from there.
Before you go, I'd love to know:
| Which shift are you making first? |
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I'd also love to hear what specific problems you're tackling these days.
I read every response, and I love hearing what you're working on and figure out how I can help!
Until next Thursday, keep creating!
