When you are starting out in surface pattern design things begin to add up fast. Tablets, printers, scanners, etc. can get a bit pricey, but do you really need them? Here I will outline what I found useful when I started learning surface design and what tools are unnecessary when you are designing on a budget. So, let’s get started.

What You Need:

A Computer:

This goes without saying but you absolutely need a computer. As far as which computer you should get, go with the cheapest. The one criteria you need to think about when buying a computer is storage. You are going to be creating a lot of patterns and, while you can always buy hard drives to put your patterns on, save yourself the hassle and buy your storage upfront.

Design Software:

The bulk of your money is going to go towards design software. It’s what turns your computer into a vehicle where you can create surface patterns so, although it is expensive, you need it. As far as software goes most illustrators like to use a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, however, I have both Photoshop and Illustrator and I rarely use Photoshop. I would say 99.9% of your work can be done through Illustrator so you don’t need Photoshop, however, if you want both and are a student/work in a school Adobe offers a discount that allows you to get a handful of software for the price of one.

Pens/Pencils:

For those of you who like to draw different elements of your patterns by hand before you jump onto the computer you are going to need pens and pencils. Any pencil will do, but the pens you need are a little more specific if you want to use live trace. Adobe Illustrator’s live trace allows you to trace your sketches on the computer so you don’t have to go in and individually draw out each element. Live trace is a bit of a controversial topic among designers, as many designers believe it eliminates the hand drawn qualities of your drawings. While I don’t use live trace personally, I see the benefit of live trace in speeding up the design process. With live trace you really need good quality felt tip pens. Micron pens are great, but any other artist quality felt tip pen will work. I use Micron pens in size 03 or 05. You don’t want to get pens that are too thin because your scanner might not be able to pick up all of the details of the tinner lines. 

Paper:

The only reason you would need to invest in high quality paper is if you were planning on using watercolor paint in your designs. If that is the case any hot press non-textured watercolor paper will work. For sketching out your ideas regular computer paper is fine. I also like using graph paper to help with symmetry, but it’s not necessary.

Classes:

What good is all of these tools if you don’t know how to use them to create surface patterns. When I was learning surface pattern design one of my favorite websites to visit was Skillshare.com. Skillshare does cost money ($15 dollars/mo or $120/yr), however, they always have deals where you get the first couple months free and that is really all you need to learn the basics of pattern design. Two of my favorite designers on skillshare are Bonnie Christine and Elizabeth Olwen.

What You Can Do Without:

Tablet:

Tablets are probably the most mentioned necessity that every surface pattern designer thinks you need but to start out it’s not necessary. I recently was gifted a Wacom Intuos Pro and find myself using Illustrator’s pen tool way more often then I do the Tablet. Tablets also happen to be one of the more expensive items on this list so if you don’t have the money to get a tablet up front, you can get by without it.

Scanner:

I almost never use my scanner. To be clear, with live trace you will need a scanner but you really only need a scanner for transferring your sketches to the computer, and for that, your phone’s camera is all you need.

Printer:

You don’t need to go out and buy a new, very expensive laser printer to become a surface pattern designer. To start out, you don’t need a printer at all. Colors look different on the computer then they do when printed so I only use my printer to test my patterns, but when you start out your main focus should be learning the fundamentals of pattern design. When you think you are ready to sell your designs that is when I would suggest getting a printer.

With any new project, don’t go all out at the beginning because you never know if you are going to stick with it. Adobe Illustrator is now paid for monthly so you might want to pay for a few months and see how it goes.

Are you already a surface pattern designer? What are your must have tools?

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