The Art of Annual Planning: How I Plan Creativity in My Design Business
The New Year is often fraught with developing goals and resolutions that are not always sustainable. I feel like I need a solid month to get in the swing of a new routine and decompress after holidays and travel. I’ve learned I like to break the year into semesters and the summer since we are an academic family with Jared’s schedule as a professor.
Using annual planning strategically helps me align my design goals with my workflow. Over the past few years, I've curated a portfolio of artwork that I feel confident in sending to art buyers and directors. I like to give them an idea of what I am designing in the coming seasons as I work to license my art. Planning the collections I am releasing provides some structure in a creative field. As a creative person, I like to make the art I want to or feel like making, but also want it to serve a purpose - on fabric, home goods, stationery and etc. Annual planning allows me time to reflect on my accomplishments, as well as what I need to improve to meet goals. This allows organization to my design work so that I can sit down and know the tasks to accomplish in 2024.
2023 Recap
Last year was a great year! I started to get more intentional about sending my work out to art buyers. One system I improved was tracking my pitches to art directors. I used Evernote in the past, but switch to Notion and love it. I plan all my blog posts in Notion as well.
I licensed my first pattern, Monarchs in Flight, through Deny Designs and it is being sold at Target.com!
I updated my website on Squarespace from version 7.0 to version 7.1. The update helped improve the aesthetic of my website. More on this process in a future blog post!
I started the year off with morning sickness since I was newly pregnant. I had my first baby, Magnolia May, in July of 2023. I tried to get as much work done before my daughter was born so that I could take a break with her. I had fun designing art for her, and made her stationery with a magnolia pattern. This pattern will be included in one of my new pattern collections for this year. It is already one of my most favorites that I’ve designed!
I am still working on my goal of licensing my designs for fabric. This is a goal I hope to meet this year, but I also know it takes time and patience, and the work will pay off.
Planning Pattern Collections
This year I will be continuing my mini pattern collections (4 patterns). I will be releasing a Valentine collection. Last year, I released two mini pattern collections, one for St. Patrick’s Day and one for Easter. I also turned my mini Halloween pattern collection into a full collection with 9 patterns, called Spooky Sweet, which is now available through Spoonflower for this year.
For full pattern collections (9 patterns), I plan to release three collections.
The Monarch Life Cycle (pattern collection name TBD) is inspired by raising monarchs the past two years. Jared got me a kit to rear monarchs one Christmas. I documented the life cycle through photos, videos, and drawings to culminate it into a pattern collection. We have multiple Asclepias tuberosa plants that we find monarch eggs and larvae on in the springtime. It is so fun to watch the monarchs grow and emerge into beautiful butterflies. We plan to go to Mexico someday to see the monarch migration!
Magnolias in May is inspired by one of my favorite flowers and my daughter, born in July of 2023, whose name is Magnolia May. These beautiful white flowers are so enthralling. We bought a log cabin in 2017, and the property had two mature magnolias already growing. We have since planted more cultivars and will plant one for our daughter as well!
Christmas Garland is a new holiday collection. I love seasonal collections! This one is filled with simple botanical elements for the holiday, winter season.
Planning Blog Posts
In 2024, I want to blog more and share the process of art, along with everyday life. It is challenging to maintain a blog, but it helps me share new work and life as an artist. Here is what you can expect from my blog posts:
New Designs: I love sharing new patterns as I create them.
Creative Process: This is how I make art, from inspiration to final product.
Squarespace Tutorials: I started a series last year about simple Squarespace tutorials that I will continue updating.
Systems and Processes as an Artist: I became a mom last year and suddenly my time to create new art is very limited, so I am trying new routines. This is a transition in figuring out how to juggle everything.
Motherhood as an Artist: While I keep my daughter off social media, I love talking about motherhood, parenthood, and how it affects our time, interests, hobbies, creative outlets and such. I also want to teach my daughter to find what she is passionate about.
Book Recommendations: Draws and Reads took a break with my pregnancy but I am always up for a book recommendation and just updated my library card. I’m thinking audiobooks are the way to go as a new mom!
Habits: I love any content about personal development, and how people survive and thrive in changing seasons of life to better themselves and their interactions with others.
Mental Health as an Artist: Drawing is a coping mechanism that helps me get out of my head. Putting pen to paper is so cathartic and I love exploring new media for making art from watercolor to using markers. I suffer debilitating anxiety at times, but thankfully with a lot of help and support, my anxiety disorder is managed. I know being creative and artistic is a huge component of making me feel better.
Looking Ahead
As January wraps up, I am focusing on my design work, and freelance projects as I look ahead in 2024. I offer design services that include custom illustration, branding, and web design. I’ve worked with small business owners, churches, gardens and nurseries, universities, and individuals to create new designs.
I am local to Nacogdoches, Texas (East Texas), but work with clients remotely near and far!
If you are interested in working with me, contact me here! I would love to help.
Happy 2024!
