MODULE 1: GATHERING INSPIRATION

Learn to see the world like a surface designer. This module is designed to open your eyes to the beauty around you and teach you how to gather, organize, and translate that beauty into the foundation of a real collection. From the very first lesson, you'll be actively seeking and organizing inspiration from the world around you: colors, textures, shapes, and stories. This is where your collection begins to take shape.

You'll learn how to build a personal, intentional well of creative fuel that you can draw from again and again. You'll develop the skill of seeing like a designer, noticing details most people walk right past, and you'll learn how to capture and organize those discoveries so they become the building blocks of your first collection.

Highlights of this Module:

• Quick Jot Brainstorming. Learn a rapid-fire ideation technique that starts with just 20 words and expands to 50 using creative prompts and AI assistance. This is a skill you'll use every time you begin a new collection, and it's one of the fastest ways to move from "I don't know what to create" to "I have more ideas than I know what to do with."
• Heartstorming. Go deeper than mood boards and color palettes. Explore what legacy you want to leave through your art, what stories matter to you, and how your personal values can become the foundation of a creative career that feels meaningful, not just productive.
• Inspiration from Everyday Life. Train your eye to see patterns, textures, color combinations, and design possibilities in the world around you, from your morning walk to the way light falls on a shelf of books. You'll never look at your everyday surroundings the same way again.
• Physical Mood Boards. Using materials from your Student Box, you'll build tactile, hands-on inspiration boards that go beyond a digital screen. There's something powerful about holding your inspiration in your hands, arranging it physically, and letting the textures and colors speak to you directly.
• Digital Inspiration Organization. Learn practical systems for organizing your inspiration digitally, including Pinterest boards and folder structures that keep your ideas accessible and ready to use when it's time to design.
• Color Exploration. Begin extracting color palettes from your inspiration sources. You'll learn to see the hidden harmonies in a photograph, a piece of fabric, or a handful of wildflowers, and translate those colors into a starting palette for your collection.
• Student Box Deep Dive. A guided exploration of the physical materials included in your Student Box, helping you connect with your inspiration in a hands-on, analog way that deepens your creative process.

You'll leave this module with an organized, intentional collection of inspiration that carries your unique perspective, a physical and digital mood board that tells the story of your first collection, and the confidence to move from seeing to making.

”

My limiting beliefs that I carried for years about being an artist were gone within just a few weeks and I had a complete mindset change. - Lana Rowsell 

MODULE 2: MAKE MOTIFS

This is where ideas come alive on paper. In this module, you'll turn the inspiration you've gathered into hand-drawn motifs through sketching, painting, and exploring the mediums you love. You'll learn to think in terms of motif hierarchy from the very beginning, giving your work purpose and direction as you create the raw material for your first collection.

Through playful, intentional exploration, you'll build a body of illustrations that reflect your story and your developing style. Whether you're working with pencils, brushes, watercolors, or found objects, every mark you make here becomes a building block for what's to come.

Highlights of this Module:

• Motif Hierarchy. Learn to create with intention by thinking in three categories that will takes you through a framework to develop everything from bold and detailed to small accents with intention.
• Quick Jot Expansion. Take the ideas you brainstormed in Module 1 and expand them into sketched motifs. You'll discover how a single word can become dozens of design possibilities once you start drawing.
• Hands-On Sketching and Painting. Explore a variety of mediums and discover which tools feel most natural to you. Pencil, ink, watercolor, brush markers, found textures: this is your creative playground.
• Working with Your Student Box. Use the physical materials included in your box to build a tactile connection to your collection's story and color palette as you sketch.
• Scan-Ready Sketches. Learn how to refine and prepare your motifs so they're ready to move seamlessly into the digital stage. Clean, intentional sketches make the digitizing process in Module 3 smoother and more rewarding.
• Building Your Illustration Library. By the end of this module, you'll have a rich collection of hand-drawn motifs, organized by hierarchy, that reflect your unique creative voice and are ready for Illustrator.

You'll leave this module with a refined set of sketches and the confidence that your ideas are strong enough to carry forward. You'll also start to notice something exciting: the way you draw, the subjects you're drawn to, and the marks you make are the early seeds of your signature style.

”

I didn’t expect it, but my life looks and feels completely different today than it did last year. It was a truly transforming experience. - Annabelle Henry

MODULE 3: DIGITIZE IN ILLUSTRATOR

This is where analog meets digital. In this module, you'll take the sketches, paintings, and found treasures you've created by hand and bring them into Adobe Illustrator. You'll learn to create motifs from a wide range of sources, and you'll build a complete, organized motif library that's ready for pattern building.

With 32 lessons, this is the most comprehensive module in the course. Every lesson is designed to help you get comfortable with Illustrator while preserving the soul of your hand-drawn work. You'll also explore color theory, build your starting palette, and end with a milestone project: your first placement print.

You'll explore multiple approaches to digitizing artwork and bringing hand drawn and painted motifs to life in vector form: tracing over sketches with the Pen and Pencil tools, vectorizing with Image Trace, drawing with the Blob Brush, and combining shapes with the Shape Builder Tool. Each method gives you a different result, and the strongest collections often come from combining several techniques.

Highlights of this Module:

• Get Started in Illustrator. Set up your workspace, learn the interface, and build organized artboards for raw scans, cleaned motifs, and final artwork. Learn and customize the shortcuts you'll use every day as a pattern designer, building speed and confidence with the software.
• Build Your Initial Palette from your Inspiration Sources. Learn practical color theory for surface pattern design.
• Explore Multiple Approaches to Digitizing Artwork. Dedicated lessons walk you through Image Trace for different artwork types: line art sketches, brush marks and textures, found and foraged objects (pressed leaves, dried flowers, bark), and hand lettering. You'll learn how to adjust Threshold, Paths, Noise, and other settings to get the look you want from each piece alongside drawing with the Blob Brush, combining shapes with the Shape Builder Tool, and creating custom brushes for consistent, expressive marks. 
• Adding Texture and Depth. Layer analog textures (watercolor washes, brush marks, scanned surfaces) into your digital motifs using clipping masks, opacity adjustments, and Illustrator effects.
• Illustrate from Photos and Painted artwork. Turn your own photographs into vector motifs and bring painted artwork into Illustrator using advanced Image Trace settings for color, then learn to organize, simplify, and recolor the vectorized results while preserving the painterly quality.
• Color Deep Dive. Learn to swap palettes, reduce colors, lock specific tones, merge similar swatches, and create endless variations of any motif.
• Your Milestone Project: Arrange your primary, secondary, and filler motifs into a composed, non-repeating design. This is the first time you'll see your artwork come together as a finished piece you can hold in your hands.

You'll finish this module with a full library of digitized motifs that feel true to your hand-drawn style, refined with color, texture, and depth, organized by hierarchy, and ready to become repeating patterns.

”

I am a 63-year-old analog woman; Adobe Illustrator has done incredible things to reshape my brain. That would not have been possible without the incredible format of Bonnie’s course and community.

-Heather Martens Rempel

MODULE 4: CREATE PATTERNS

Now it's time to turn your motifs into patterns. This is the moment everything you've been building toward starts to click. You'll see Bonnie's real process unfold and discover the workflow that fits your own creative style as you learn to design seamless repeat patterns in a variety of pattern compositions and layouts.

With more than 20 lessons, this module covers both the creative thinking and the technical skills behind professional pattern design. You'll explore three core pattern-building methods, master a full range of layouts, and develop the ability to evaluate and refine your own work with a trained eye.

The module opens with a full watch-me-work session where Bonnie takes a hand-drawn motif from her sketchbook through scanning, digitizing, and building a complete repeat, showing every real-time decision and refinement along the way. From there, you'll build your own patterns with increasing complexity and confidence.

Highlights of this Module:

• From Sketch to Swatch. Watch the entire pattern creation process from start to finish in a real-time demonstration. See how motifs evolve into complete, professional designs through iteration and creative decision-making.
• Finding Your Voice + Signature Style. Learn to recognize the recurring elements, subjects, and rhythms in your work that are becoming your signature. 
• Pattern Design Principles and Process. Learn the four composition families that guide professional pattern design.
• File Management and Organization. Set up naming conventions, folder structures, and version control systems that keep your creative process sustainable as your pattern library grows.
• Pattern-Building Methods, Layouts, and Layering. Learn multiple methods for pattern building in Illustrator  and discover which feels most natural to you. Add depth, surface quality, and visual richness to your repeats through layering techniques and intentional texture.
• Color and Design Principles for Patterns. Create variations that strengthen your collection, learn how to change the scale of a pattern, spot common mistakes in pattern design, and develop a professional eye for quality assessment before moving forward.

By the end of this module, you'll have your own growing library of repeat patterns built from your hand-drawn motifs, each one rooted in your personal creative voice and ready to become part of a cohesive collection.

”

Not only is Bonnie the best teacher I've ever experienced, but the community is also the kindest, most supportive, and most helpful I've ever had the pleasure of growing with. - Chris Vabre

MODULE 5: DESIGN COLLECTIONS

Learn the art of designing complete surface pattern collections. This is where your individual patterns become something greater: a unified, story-driven body of work that speaks with one voice. You'll make intentional decisions about every pattern's role, develop professional colorways, and complete a mini collection as your milestone project.

With 20 lessons, this module teaches you to think like a collection designer. You'll learn how to weave a narrative into your designs, assign clear roles to your patterns, develop color stories that hold together across an entire collection, and prepare your work for the professional marketplace.

Highlights of this Module:

• The Art of Designing in Collections. Understand why collections matter in the surface design industry and how designing in collections amplifies your appeal to art directors, retailers, and consumers.
• Plan Your Collection’s Purpose & Curate. Define the narrative, mood, and direction of your collection before you design a single new pattern. Refine and adjust your existing patterns so they serve specific roles within the collection. Learn to evaluate your collection as a whole, looking for balance, variety, and cohesion.
• Work with Color and Scale. Expand your collection's versatility by creating a multiple colorways. Adjust patterns for cohesion, ensuring they work together at consistent scales and feel like a unified family.
• Incorporating Industry Trends, Research and Design Briefs. Learn how to stay current and relevant, understand what's selling and how to position your work within the market, what companies ask for when they commission surface design work, and learn to create within specific parameters.
• The Art of Self-Critique and Feedback. Sharpen your design eye and learn to evaluate your own collection with the kind of honest, constructive perspective that strengthens your work.
• Your Art on Products. See your collection come to life through mockups and brand imagery. Visualize how your patterns will look on fabric, wallpaper, stationery, and home goods.
• Design Your Mini Collection. Your milestone project: pull together everything you've learned into a cohesive collection.

You'll leave this module with a cohesive, heartfelt collection that reflects your unique voice, presented professionally and ready for the final step: sharing it with the world.

”

I have searched high and low across the globe for a comprehensive pattern design course - I couldn’t have found a more perfect teacher or program than Immersion. - Divya

MODULE 6: CREATIVE BUSINESS

This is where your collection becomes your career. Module 6 is your comprehensive guide to the business of surface design, covering everything from building a pitch-ready portfolio to understanding licensing deals, pricing your work, protecting your intellectual property, and navigating the professional landscape with confidence.

With over 23 lessons, this module covers the full scope of what it takes to earn income from your artwork. Whether you dream of licensing your designs, selling products, working with an art agent, attending trade shows, or building your own creative business, you'll find a clear path forward here.

Highlights of this Module:

• Build Your Creative Life by Design. Map out the career and lifestyle you want to build through your artwork. Get a thorough overview of how the industry works and the different categories where surface designers thrive.
• Create and Build a Pitch-Ready Portfolio. Learn what to include, what to leave out, and how to showcase your work with professionalism and personality. Create a polished presentation piece that makes your collection easy to evaluate at a glance. 
• Prepare to Pitch and Submit Your Work with Confidence. A pre-pitch checklist that ensures you're fully ready before you reach out alongside mindset and practical strategies for approaching the pitch process with courage and professionalism. Pair with communication strategies for building lasting professional relationships, and guidance for navigating the next stages after someone expresses interest in your work.
• Pricing, Licensing, and Protecting Your Work. Learn three main compensation models plus hourly and project rate guidance for every experience level. Understand contract components, what to watch for, how to negotiate terms, and the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive agreements. Gain essential knowledge about intellectual property rights, copyright registration, and how to safeguard your creative work.
• Income Streams and Opportunities. Explore the full landscape of earning possibilities: licensing, freelancing, print on demand, e-commerce, collaborations, passive income, and more.
• How to Stay Visible. Develop ongoing strategies for promoting your work, building your professional presence, and keeping art directors coming back to you with guidance to create a personalized, actionable outreach strategy that keeps momentum alive long after the course ends.

Your Pitching and Visibility Plan. Create a personalized, actionable outreach strategy that keeps momentum alive long after the course ends.

”

Bonnie opened doors for me that I never knew were possible. She opened my mind to what I can achieve with my life. - Mable Tan