Confession: This visual designer had no idea what “surface design” was until very recently (like a-couple-days-ago-recently). But, as it turns out, I’m not the only designer who didn’t know this was an industry category, either.

Let me back up for a second. Whenever you see an awesome pattern/print on the back of an iPhone case, or on a pillow or wallpaper, you know that a designer created that, and that much is obvious. But I what I always supposed is that the person who designed these items labeled themselves an illustrator. I had no idea that, while the person who created these designs is an illustrator, they’re also more broadly referred to as Surface Designers in the field of graphic/visual design.


Surface designers only work on surfaces (obviously), and more specifically, on surface patterns.

I learned about surface design when I listened to a class on Skillshare, taught by Elizabth Olwen, who, as it turns out, is an amazing surface designer. The class is an hour long and a nice, short introduction about surface design and how to create a pattern using some of her techniques. Sign up for Skillshare and do a free trial to check the class out.

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NOW! Here’s your Freebie Friday: a desktop wallpaper. Right click or drag to your desktop to save.

IMPORTANT: Because this was for personal practice, I was looking at a bunch of images online to get an idea of how to draw leaves and flowers, none of them from memory, so if you use this, make sure it’s only for personal projects. The bird though, is quite a masterpiece, don't you think?