On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about the progress that designers make over time. She talks about taking a somewhat embarrassing (for her!) trip down memory lane when she recently searched for herself on the internet. Over 15 years of search results, she saw a lot of progress in her design work. She had a similar experience when she taught college, seeing the huge improvement that design students made from their first year of college through their senior year of college. While going to college is a great way to get a design education, Carina doesn’t recommend college for those transitioning into a second career. For those looking to start a second career, finding a great, year-long program that teaches specific skills is the better way to go.
Carina invites all of us to go back and look at our design work so that we can see the improvement and progress that we’ve made over time. She encourages us to stick with it because good things will come as we continue to work and improve. __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
Today on the Make + Design Podcast, design expert Carina Gardner gets real about what it takes to make a full time living as a surface pattern designer. In Carina’s opinion, there are a lot more possibilities beyond “surface pattern design” and she goes into other ways designers can expand their thinking to give themselves more revenue streams with their work. Carina knows many designers who make five-figure salaries in a year. She then delves into what it takes to earn a six figure salary as a designer. 1. You have to get faster in Illustrator. 2. You have to have multiple streams of income. 3. You have to know the right markets where you can sell your products. She goes into more detail in her Design Bootcamp and into a *lot* more detail in her Design Suite program. Carina spends some time talking about ways that designers who push themselves into 3D design not only open a new market to sell their designs in but they also level up their 2D, surface pattern design work.
Carina tells us about the three purposes of her Design Suite program: 1. Learn how to design. 2. Learn how to produce great design work. 3. Learn how to make money as a designer by placing products in the best markets. Carina knows the best markets with the lowest barriers to entry and shares her insider knowledge with her members. The first step to learning more about Design Suite is to attend one of Carina’s Design Bootcamps (link below).
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about flow state and not just how to find it but how to create it. Carina has discovered that to be the best designer possible producing the best work, she needs to get into flow. Flow occurs when you are so absorbed in the thing at hand that time stands still, you don’t notice the things around you, and you find yourself in an amazing state where you just move forward. Sometimes we don’t notice we’re in flow until after the fact. Flow state has a lot of amazing benefits: your enjoyment goes up, your ability goes insane, and you even get a dopamine hit. For Carina, there are some really specific things that get her into flow. As you evaluate when you get into flow, pay attention to the things that got you there (did you have a big block of time or was it something else?).
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina delves into one thing you can do to change the trajectory of your business: becoming incredibly, crazy fast in Adobe Illustrator. Carina gives us a great example on how getting fast in Illustrator increases your pay rate since you can produce so much more work. Carina’s advice is to spend less time in the dozens and dozens of features in Illustrator and to focus on developing proficiency in the 10 to 20 actions that professional designers use ALL THE TIME.
How long does it take to get fast at Illustrator? It will take a few months but the *key* is to be in Illustrator every single day. Those who spend time every day will get better, fast, more efficient and will increase their pay rate and explode their growth as a designer.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about what makes a good Community. The more that Carina has thought about her community, the more she’s thought about what it takes to lead a community. Community makes us stronger, more creative, and more likely to reach our goals.
First, Carina shares her thoughts on finding a community that creates an atmosphere where members are comfortable giving and taking. Not only should the leader of the community participate and give; you should look for a community where members are willing to reach out and help members who have questions. A great community is a fifty-fifty mix of giving and taking. After six months of learning, the hope is that those who “take” at first will have a chance to “give” down the road.
Second, in Carina’s opinion, you should find a community where members feel safe. The internet is full of spaces where people can comment in snarky ways or act in ways that are toxic and those spaces feel unsafe. Carina finds that if members pay into a community then the amount of negativity goes down to almost zero. A safe community helps us to be better because committed people lift us up and make us better.
Third, find a community where the leader sets the tone. If you want a community that is excited and fun then find a leader who rises to the occasion and brings a level of energy and positivity to the group. Carina shares some thoughts on what to do if your current community isn’t feeding you with positivity as well.
Finally, Community is really just a way of creating relationships with people you can do amazing things with and that you can fall back on when things are hard. Great communities foster great relationships that grow beyond the community itself.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s Make + Design Podcast, Carina wants to help us become next-level designers because next-level is the level where you get paid for your work. To help us, Carina shares three mistakes that we should avoid. Mistake number one is designing at the same scale all the time. Find out what Carina means by this and why it’s holding you back from leveling up. Mistake number two is keeping your spacing and negative space consistent across all of your designs. Listen in to see why this is such a pitfall. The last mistake Carina warns us about is to design a piece for just one medium. Listen in for tips on how to design something that works across multiple platforms. Carina loves sharing these kinds of practical tips so that you can learn to think smart and strategically as a designer.
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina gives us five ways to generate new ideas. Carina tells us the story of going to a movie with her kids that, at first, she didn’t want to go to but that she ended up loving and being inspired by.
Here are the five tips:
Change your environment. Find out what happens for Carina when she changes her environment–whether it’s moving to work from bed, from a hammock outside, or just from a different room in the house.
See something outside your normal range. This means getting outside your comfort zone and seeing, doing, or listening to something outside of your regular routine and comfort zone.
Do something outside of your comfort zone. This means planning a new experience outside of your comfort zone and then doing it. Find out how this is different from number 2 and how these new experiences have inspired Carina!
Make sure you are self aware, especially about your inner self talk. Listen to Carina’s tips on overcoming negative self talk and how it will help you unlock your creativity.
Don’t discount the ideas that will be hard or uncomfortable to implement. Carina tells us about her shift from surface pattern design to 3D design work as an example of a difficult, uncomfortable process that she implemented that has worked out well for her.
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
Carina is joined on Make + Design today by brilliant business woman Annette Walter. Annette shares her career trajectory with us and then gives us great advice on how to run a business. Anyone who becomes good enough at their trade will eventually need to shift into business administration and leadership. She tells us how we can stay grounded as business owners when we have less time to do the thing that originally brought us success because we are spending so much time working on the business instead of on production.
Annette also tells us about a tool called the “Core Values Index.” It’s a tool that allows you to discover your strengths and learn to surround yourself with people who make up for your weaknesses as you build a team.
Carina and Annette continue the conversation by looking at things to consider when building a team for the first time. As you build a team, you’re really creating two audiences for your product: the internal team and your external customers. Building a team will allow you to get rid of the tasks that you don’t like to do. Annette also walks us through the beauty of using a T-chart to decide how to grow your business. The advice that Annette shares is essential for anyone looking to start or grow a business.
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
About Today’s Guest Annette Walter is a brilliant business owner, consultant, and podcaster. She got her career started in the banking industry and then founded a full-service real estate company in 2008 that was later acquired by Berkshire Hathaway. Today she owns two companies, Timber Industries, which is the world’s largest woman-owned palette distribution company, and a business growth operational strategy coaching and consulting firm called iEvolve Consulting. Find Annette’s work at https://ievolveconsulting.com/ and on Instagram @ievolvedaily. Find Annette’s Podcast, The Entrepreneur Evolution Podcast, can be found on Apple and Spotify
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina gives us a list of three ways that you can start thinking differently from the competition in order to make it as a surface pattern designer. A surface pattern designer is a designer who focuses on creating 2D designs. Fifteen years ago a surface pattern designer would have been called a graphic designer. The new title is fun though!
Tip #1: See the world in shapes. Design is a learned behavior and anyone can learn it. Listen in to see what carina means by “see the world in shapes,” a vital skill to becoming a professional surface pattern designer.
Tip #2: Shift your style mindset to disrupt the marketplace rather than to copy the marketplace. Find out how producing something that’s different can set you apart from the competition.
Tip #3: Pay attention to negative space. What is negative space and how can you create great negative space? Carina walks us through it (hint: does your negative space attract eyes to your designs or detract from them?).
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina takes two steps back from her usual tips and strategies about design to talk about how to become a designer. Carina gives us two nuggets of wisdom when it comes to becoming a designer: First, you have to know the software that professional designers use to produce their work. Learn what these are as Carina walks through the most important skills and softwares you need to become a designer. Second, you need to find a marketplace. Hear what Carina has to say about how to find a market that works for you and your style! Carina also gives us a link to a resource with SEVEN additional tips on how to become a designer.
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
