10 best Skillshare classes for budding pattern designers

Ok, so I have a confession to make… I’m addicted… To Skillshare classes!

I’ve been a member of Skillshare for a few years now and my compulsion for finding and joining their fabulous classes hasn’t dwindled, if anything it’s increased. Any minute I have free I’ll be glued to my iPad learning new tricks. This can be while I’m having breakfast/lunch, while relaxing on the sofa (tv doesn’t do it for me anymore) or, let’s be open, on the loo, as I don’t like the feeling that my life is flushing away down the toilet ;-).

Just as a proof of my obsession, let me tell you that I’ve completed 73 classes, I’m enrolled in 8 at the moment and I’ve 227 classes saved for the future (I know, crazy). As you can see, I’ve gone through loads of classes and to be honest I haven’t loved them all, so when I find worthy candidates I like to share them with my creative comrades.

Let me begin by explaining what Skillshare is, just in case you haven’t heard about it.

Skillshare is an online learning community for creative skills that works just like Netflix. Students anywhere in the world pay $10 a month for access to thousands of online classes, on-demand.

Anyone can teach for free on Skillshare, which means students have access to the most relevant, up-to-date creative skills. Students learn everything from design to business to photography, film, crafts, culinary, music, writing, technology and more, from the world’s best teachers.

Skillshare classes are designed to be bite-sized with short video lessons to fit your schedule. You can learn at your own pace and on-the-go with their free mobile apps on both Apple and Android devices.

Being a graphic and surface pattern designer myself, my favourite classes are those that have anything to do with these fields. Classes about designing and making patterns, illustration, Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop always make it onto my ‘to-watch’ list. No matter how much of an expert you think you are, I believe you can always learn new things from watching your peers’ workflows. Everyone’s got their quirky ways of doing stuff and we can learn a thing or two from each other, that’s for sure.

So, if you’re just starting out designing patterns, or you’re a bit higher up the ladder, I’m sure you’ll find a class on this top 10 to tickle your fancy!

To be able to watch some of these Skillshare classes you must be a paying member. You can get full access for $13.99 a month, BUT because you read Pitter Pattern and I love you for that, you can get a FREE 1-month trial if you sign up through any link on this page!

[alert color=”grey”] Please note: As a Skillshare teacher, I’ll get a small referral bonus if you sign up to any of the classes through Pitter Pattern (at no extra cost to you, but it does help run the blog!). But let me tell you that even if I didn’t get a penny I would still recommend these gems. I’ve taken these classes, I loved them and that’s why I support them. [/alert]

So, without further ado, here are my chosen 10 best Skillshare classes for budding pattern designers (in no particular order)…

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Introduction to Surface Design: Creating and Mixing Patterns

With Jenna Frye

A teacher at MICA, Jenna knows her stuff. This is a fabulous class that covers the basics (and a bit more) of pattern design and helps you develop your skills with colour, texture and personal style. Plus, amazingly, it’s free! What’s not to like?

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Introduction to Designing Repeat Patterns in Illustrator

With Elizabeth Olwen

Elizabeth is an inspiring surface pattern designer. In this introductory class, she shows you exactly how she creates her wonderful patterns, right from gathering inspiration to colouring and preparing final files.

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Pattern Design II: A Creative Look at a Full Pattern Collection

With Elizabeth Olwen

Another class by Ms Olwen. This one follows up on the skills learned on the ‘Introduction to Designing Repeat Patterns in Illustrator’, showing you the steps to designing a cohesive pattern collection.

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Pattern Design: Bring Your Artwork to Life on Products

With Elizabeth Olwen

In her latest class, Elizabeth goes one step further by showing you all that is needed to visualise your own artwork on products (which is always the most fun part of the design process in my opinion!).

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Intro to Surface Pattern Design: Learn Adobe Illustrator

With Bonnie Christine

Bonnie is another super talented self-taught surface pattern designer. In this class, she goes deep into the technical aspects of designing patterns using Adobe Illustrator.

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Surface Pattern Design 2.0: Design a Collection | Start a Career

With Bonnie Christine

Another one by Bonnie. This one is for any of you that are more serious about surface pattern design as a career. She shares loads of useful information, from designing a collection, to how to get noticed in the industry.

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Design & Bind Your Own Creative Portfolio

With Bonnie Christine

Bonnie’s latest class is not only for aspiring surface pattern designers but for everyone wanting to build a physical design portfolio. Get the scissors, glue and even drill out and prepare to get crafty!

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Designing Repeat Patterns: From Icons to Apparel and Beyond

With Kimi Lewis

Kimi is an illustrator, graphic designer and art director. In this free class, she takes you through the very basics of creating repeat patterns using graphic icons in Adobe Illustrator.

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Watercolor Meets Surface Pattern Design

With Jenn Coyle

And last but not least we have Jenn, a designer, illustrator and blogger. If you’re into your watercolours then this is the class for you. You’ll learn the basics of digitising and vectorizing watercolour paintings and creating repeat patterns using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

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You made it to the end, well done… I really hope you liked my selection of Skillshare pattern classes and that you found something suitable for your needs/wants.

Remember, if you sign up to Skillshare through any link on this page, you’ll get a FREE 1-month trial, and during that period you can test the waters and see if Skillshare offers anything you want. If you’re anything like me you’ll LOVE it. They have over 35,000 classes, so there’s bound to be something you’ll want to learn about.

And if you’re interested in more surface pattern design resources then click this button!

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