2025 Roundup

In 2025, I entered all 26 Spoonflower design challenges. In fact, I’ve made participating in the challenges a priority ever since joining Spoonflower in March 2023. They’ve been an invaluable way to learn the ropes, connect with other artists, and get acquainted with the surface pattern design industry. I think of the challenges as my ongoing design biz boot camp.

I’m currently at 94 consecutive challenges without missing a single one. If all goes well, I should hit the benchmark of 100 straight entries in about three months. (Yes, I’m counting.)

But this post is about 2025.

Out of my 26 entries this year, my work placed in the top 100 fifteen times, the top 50 twelve times, and the top ten three times. Considering most challenges receive between 1,000 and 2,000 entries, I’m pretty thrilled with those results. A huge thank you to everyone who voted for my work and offered encouragement, it truly means a lot.

This year also came with a few exciting milestones. I was selected as one of the Top 100 Surface Pattern Designers to Watch in Uppercase Magazine’s Spring SPD issue, and select pieces of my work are now included in the portfolio of Mary Jones Design in London, where they’ve already generated some sales (hoohoo!) Also, my Instagram account followers surpassed my first big goal (1000 followers) some months back, currently nearing 1200. Each of these moments felt like solid signs that I’m heading in the right direction.

Looking ahead, I have two big goals for next year:

1) Relocate my POD shop to my own website
I plan to move my print-on-demand shop from Etsy to my own site and put a proper marketing system in place, complete with automated emails and scheduled social posts and let the automation do the work. 

2) Build a client base
With nearly three years of experience under my belt, I’m ready to start approaching clients and exploring freelance and licensing opportunities. I’m not entirely sure what shape that will take yet, but I’m excited to experiment, reach out, and see what sticks.

All in all, 2025 has been a year of showing up consistently, learning as I go, and celebrating some meaningful wins along the way. Considering this is still technically a “side-gig-with-big-dreams”, I’m pretty gosh darned excited about the progress!

Here’s to keeping the momentum going, one pattern, one challenge, and one cheeky email at a time.