Meeting the Analog Moment

By: Bonnie Christine

Story Adapted From Pattern Magazine – Volume 6

Pattern Magazine is Bonnie Christine's quarterly print and digital publication for surface pattern designers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs who believe that how you live shapes what you make. This story first appeared in Volume 6, Marking the Moment, the autumn 2026 issue.

We are longing to touch, to hold, to turn the page, to plant, and to cultivate with our hands.

As creatives, as humans, we are moving toward moments we can hold in our hands, beauty we can tangibly enjoy.

We are longing for analog.

Over the past several years, we have inched toward digital, prizing the fast-paced efficiency it offers. We have swapped handwritten letters for text messages and books read cover to cover for social media posts. Instead of taking long walks to collect autumn leaves, we have walked to the other side of the room to plug in our charging cord and turn on our tech screens for entertainment.

Now, we are zig-zagging.

We are longing to touch, to hold, to turn the page, to plant, and to cultivate with our hands.

Have you felt this shift?

Out with the content overload and the algorithm circus; in with the scrapbooking and the dinner parties. People are pressing toward connection.

This analog moment provides a unique opportunity for creatives and business owners. Here are seven ways to prioritize analog with examples of how we are personally leaning into this industry invitation.

The analog revival

60 new stores. Barnes & Noble opened sixty new stores last year and announced plans to open at least sixty more this year.

19 years of consecutive vinyl sales-growth, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. 2025 sales increased 9.3% from the year before.

Film is back. Reports on the Global Film Photography Camera Market show an increased demand in film photography.

+136% analog searches. Michaels Craft Store is not complaining; they just shared that analog hobby searches are up 136% in the last six months. Etsy announced an “analog revival” in their Seller Trend Report: Spring and Summer 2026. Analog hobbies like sewing, knitting, and embroidery are becoming increasingly popular.

#1 Create with your hands

If something is handmade, it is valuable. Painterly motifs add depth to a pattern. Fingerprints in clay tell the artist’s story. The hand-embroidered stitches on a stocking make it one-of-a-kind. As you create this season, create by hand. It takes more care, perhaps more time, but there is a beauty to the human touch that a machine cannot replicate.

And if you doodle, swish, splash, or drop a detail you did not originally intend...do not count it as a mistake. Handmade does not mean perfect. Handmade means human. And human is prized in the industry right now.

#2 Meet Face to Face

People are longing for in-person interactions, something more meaningful than a digital meeting room and a hope-the-wifi-holds connection. And according to Harvard Business Review, face-to-face meetings are thirty-four times more effective than email. So, let’s embrace the invitation.

What phone calls can you replace with neighborhood walks? What online meetings can become a team retreat? What trade shows and licensing rooms do you need to be in?

Last year, we attended the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, filled with representatives from brands like Target, Amazon, Walmart, HGTV, and Johnson & Johnson. Every other booth leaned digital. We focused on setting up our booth to be the warmest, most personable “hello” we could create: an analog experience.

Photo by Lissie Teehee

A wooden greenhouse stood at the center of our space with garden beds of fresh roses you could smell across the room. We hung handmade plaster birds from the top of our booth and draped florals from the beams. A wall of patterned fabric and a grand display of our Flowerie products invited people to touch and hold our designs.

We made connections we could not have created by sending an email to the inbox. By going “all in” at an in-person event, we estimate we made ten years’ worth of contacts in two and a half days. (Step inside the booth here, or watch the Licensing Expo documentary.)

Wanting More?

Read the full story in Volume 6 of Pattern Magazine.

The complete feature (all seven ways to prioritize analog, from sharing physical products and valuing the printed page to the “come with me” approach) is in the latest issue.