Do you see patterns everywhere?
Do you love making art, and are considering the career options?
Are you interested in learning new, marketable skills?
If so, you may have heard of Bonnie Christine's Immersion course.
If you're trying to decide if it's a good fit for you, read on - we'll talk about course value, questions to consider, and I'm going to dive into my experience building my business as a surface designer, and also as a student in Immersion 2021, Immersion 2022 and Immersion 2023.
My Background
I studied Jewelry Design + Metalworking 15 years ago - first in the United States at the University of Georgia, then a Masters at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham (UK). As an American with crippling levels of student loans, it didn't take long for me to realize that I could not physically produce enough jewelry to pay off my student loans. I ended up shifting into more corporate roles, and for the following 13 years I traveled, learned a lot about sales + marketing + project management, and paid off my loans. Once I met that goal of becoming debt-free, I started to think about how to build a more meaningful career. This eventually led to me quitting my corporate job in Hong Kong, moving to Taiwan to study Mandarin, and then finding Immersion in 2021 after I moved to Barcelona.
My Immersion Experience
Immersion really reignited my passion for learning something new- after 10 years in the same corporate job, I hadn't realized how stagnant I had become. These classes and live sessions gave me something to look forward to and to feel truly accomplished about every day. Bonnie Christine teaches with so much clarity, guidance, and compassion every step of the way, and there was so much amazing content and technique to learn.
The first two weeks of Immersion were extremely intense- it's when we dive in and learn Adobe Illustrator, from the ground up. Bonnie is a thorough, clear teacher, and with the help of her Expert team and the community of other students, there is always someone there to help if you get stuck. On top of the video lessons, there are 3 live (but also recorded replay!) Q&A calls during the week that address frequently asked questions or places where people are getting stuck.
Although learning Illustrator is a huge undertaking, Bonnie breaks it down into bite-sized pieces and lots of wins and results to celebrate- and the community is right there to celebrate with you. I found that this approach offered a lot of motivation to continue, and when I looked back at the end of the first week of lessons, I was shocked at how much I had already accomplished. The confidence that this brings still gives me momentum in my business, even years later.
After two intense weeks of learning Adobe Illustrator, the course shifts toward designing collections and the Surface Pattern Design industry. This is an overview of industry expert advice on collections, portfolios, pricing, email marketing, copyright and tax overviews, and more. It's not as in-depth as the Illustrator training, so if you're taking Immersion because you want to dive deep into the Surface Design industry, I would suggest considering other resources (some of my favorites below!)
After Graduation (2021)
I finished my first full collection during Immersion 2021, then took Bonnie's advice to spend time building my skills and working toward a signature style. Although I could have started pitching to clients much earlier, I took a little more than a year - from June 2021 til August 2022 - to create.
In my first year of business, Bonnie's mantra of "One Thing A Day" got me so much farther than I ever could have imagined: I built my website, learned a lot of new techniques + pattern styles through Skillshare, and kept going back to the Immersion course materials to work (and re-work) my way through the modules. During this creation year, I ended up with 18 mini collections and 2 full collections. Here are a few more milestones from this first year of business:
- 4 months after Immersion, I’d made my first sale
- 5 months after Immersion, I placed in the Top 50 of a Spoonflower Design Challenge and made more Print on Demand sales
- I built a website that supported my brand vision
- I spent hundreds of hours on Skillshare, expanding my technical knowledge and portfolio
- I started putting myself out in the world as a Surface Pattern Designer, launching this with my contacts, and that led to two private clients who commissioned art and homeware!
Immersion 2022: Alumni Experience
After sharing my experience with Bonnie and her team, I was given the opportunity to return to Immersion in 2022 for free. The video lessons were also updated this year, with a lot of new content added, so I took the entire course again and was really impressed with these updates, new bonus modules, and special guest lessons.
Returning as an alumni was a really different experience than my first year. In Immersion 2021, I was so focused on learning Illustrator, developing technique and style, and just trying to keep up with all the amazing content and knowledge that was part of the course.
By 2022, I had been working in Illustrator and Surface Pattern for a year, and it meant I could focus on other aspects: the Immersion community network, and the marketing/branding/business development modules.
Bonnie and her team of experts were so supportive when I was just starting out, and I wanted to be able to connect with others and help them - especially Immersion first-timers. I connected with some really fantastic people in the Immersion community, and am still in touch (online and in-person) with a lot of them. Because learning Illustrator wasn't my main focus this time around, I could appreciate the marketing and business development parts of the course, and it gave me a lot more clarity on how I wanted to continue building the foundations of my business. I also REALLY benefited from the Experts, and used the opportunity to get industry feedback on my new collection.
When I first started Immersion in 2022, I reached out into the community to see if there were any other students in my area. There were two other artists in Barcelona on the course, and we started meeting in person on Fridays to talk through course content, troubleshoot issues, and also explore the city! I've also connected with some other really fantastic Immersion artists online, and get so much joy and support out of those connections.
On the business and marketing side, my first licensed fabric collection is being released in 2023, and I have created a total of 5 full collections for the fabric industry and 14 mini-collections that I am pitching and continuing to expand during the year.
Let's Talk Value
Bonnie has a lot of great details about the full list of what she'll be teaching on the course, but I wanted to run through a few of my highest-value takeaways:
- Adobe Illustrator: while you can definitely license your artwork without ever using Adobe Illustrator, it does offer useful tips for workflow and advice for how to build it according to industry standards. Bonnie will teach you how to use it in the first two modules of the course; it's an intensive process, and takes time, but Bonnie's teaching style is so thorough, clear, and useful - you'll be amazed at how much you learn! When I do need to use Illustrator in my workflow, I still go back to these lessons to pick up new tricks or troubleshoot problems. While the cost of Immersion is a significant investment, the fast pace that you can learn in-depth Adobe Illustrator skills was impressive - and was the highest-value part of the course. However, as my art style and workflow have improved, I almost never use Illustrator for my client work now. Procreate and Photoshop are my go-tos, since many companies have moved to digital printing and don't have color limits.
- A Roadmap: While learning Illustrator was the most valuable part of the course to me in 2021, the in-depth industry advice and "roadmap" Bonnie shares has been a good set of guidelines: she covers tax, legal/copyright, marketing, portfolio development, pitching your work for licensing/buyouts... the list goes on. This information is not nearly as in-depth as the Illustrator training, so it does make the course feel a bit lopsided - but the Roadmap is still a useful set of ideas. I do, however, supplement this information with advice from other industry professionals - I love the resources from Elizabeth Silver and Shannon McNab at Sketch Design Repeat!
- Networks: while it's impossible to put a dollar value on networks, they are so important! Not only does Immersion give you access to the team of experts and special guest teachers, it also gives you a huge network of peers. While the course gets more and more popular every year, there are still ways to form connections with classmates and build meaningful contacts along the way. I put a call out every year to other local artists in my city, and we started doing Friday creative meetups together... it was a great way to make new creative friends!
- Confidence: Although learning Illustrator is a huge undertaking, Bonnie breaks it down into bite-sized pieces and lots of wins and results to celebrate- and the community is right there to celebrate with you. When I looked back at the end of the first week of lessons, I was shocked at how much I had already accomplished.
Is Immersion Right for You?
Immersion caters to a really wide audience: every year there are people who had never studied art before, new moms, retirees, and a whole lot of people (like me) who were planning on a career change.
With that in mind, here are a few questions to consider, as you decide if Immersion is right for you:
- What is your time frame for earning money?
The Surface Design industry does not have a clear or quick path to a full-time career. On average, you're looking at 3-5 years MINIMUM before you build enough clients (licensing, freelance, wholesale, POD....) to earn a more regular wage. Most of the people I've met in Immersion made less than $100 a year on their art for the first 2 years.
Immersion is an intensive 8 weeks and really does give you everything you need to get started in the Surface Pattern Design industry. However, building your portfolio, creating an artwork style that doesn't look like Bonnie's, and creating regular, recurring income is a much longer process. This time frame is different for everyone; I have some classmates from Immersion 2021 who got licensing deals in their first year of business, but keep in mind that getting one licensing deal (or even 5 deals!) is NOT enough to make a full-time income. My first licensing deals are coming in my 2nd year of business and aren't going to put any money in my bank account until I'm well into my 3rd year of working full-time.
- Can you afford it?
For me, making a plan to repay myself for the course fees with income earned from Surface Pattern Design has been a huge motivator. It's taken me nearly 3 years, but 2023 was the year that my income from designs paid back my educational investment in Immersion - and the Immersion Roadmap and being able to take an accelerated dive into Adobe Illustrator really helped me kickstart my education.
Note that I paid for the course once only, in 2021 when the fees were much smaller than they are now. In 2022 and 2023 I was invited back for free as an alumni after sharing my story with Bonnie and her team.
While I was able to take my time to "pay myself back", you can definitely get more creative with this question! For instance, do you have another side-hustle that you can use to fund the Immersion fees? Do you have a hobby or other recurring expense that you would want temporarily pause, and put the time and money from that activity toward Immersion?
Above all else, I would advise you DO NOT GO INTO DEBT to take Immersion. You will not earn that money back quickly, and I know a few Immersion alumni who are in financial binds from doing this. You won't miss anything by educating yourself in other ways while you save up to do Immersion the following year - if you still want to.
Immersion does offer some needs-based scholarships every year, and the last two years has offered a few free places for alumni to return (which is how I joined Immersion again in 2022 and 2023).
- Are there other ways you could make this dream happen?
As a well-established pattern designer said recently, "You can spend a few thousand on an expertly marketed, streamlined course, or you can spend $80 and build your education from Skillshare and YouTube".
Immersion really does hold your hand and provide a road map for your first couple years of business. I still supplemented what I learned from Immersion with a Skillshare membership and tons of great YouTube content from other teachers. (Pro Tip: you can get free months on Skillshare, and they also occasionally run really good sales on yearly membership fees!)
Immersion does a lot of "mindset work" and a large amount of the course content is about encouraging students who feel like they're not keeping up, or aren't cut out for the industry, or any other number of roadblocks. If you think that this is something you would benefit from and are willing to pay for, Immersion will offer you that support in a way that Skillshare and YouTube won't. However, if you're there for course content and business-building, you may feel bogged down by the amount of time and energy that is spent on this mindset-work.
- What do you want to achieve?
Here are some things I had on my list:
- Learning a new, marketable skill that can expand my employability
- Confidence-building and encouragement while building a daily art practice
- Exploring my long-held passion for pattern and product design
- (as an alumna) Building a network (in person and online) of creative professionals
Researching the Surface Design Industry
If you're like me, and were considering Immersion because you planned to launch a career in the Surface Pattern industry, start your market research as soon as you can-- Youtube and podcasts are a fantastic resource, and there's so much out there. Here are a few things I wish I had seen before paying for any courses:
- The Surface Design Survey from Sketch, Design Repeat : this annual survey is free to download (this year there's an option to donate what you like, but there's still a free option!) and uses anonymous data from thousands of surface designers around the globe to give a clearer picture of how much people are earning, and how they're making their income. It's an incredible resource, and will really help you as you consider your financial planning for this industry.
- Fair Pricing for Surface Designers Facebook Group not only has live discussions of people discussing contracts and payment issues, but also has two really relevant resources: anonymous reviews of surface design courses, and also anonymous information about what companies pay. Once your request is approved to join the group, you can click on the "Guides" section to access these- and I would highly recommend it!
- Can Art Licensing Pay a Full Time Income? with Nicole Tamarin | Elizabeth Silver Elizabeth Silver's YouTube channel is absolutely full of gems, but this gets into the nitty-gritty of what the Art Licensing path looks like.
- Surface Pattern Design Jobs: Which Path is Right for You? | Elizabeth Silver gives a rundown of different career paths within surface design, with the pros and cons of each.
- This post from Surface Design News has a really robust conversation going in the comments. It's raw, it's revealing, and it's full of gems: "Have you recouped the money you've spent on learning how to become a surface pattern designer? If not, do you think you will soon?"
I hope the resources above give you a better idea of what to expect, and how you can shape this journey in a way that suits your situation best. If you're keen to keep learning more (for free!) about the industry and what's expected, you can find me on Instagram and also check out other posts in my blog.
I'm wishing you the very best for your next steps!
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