How to Start Pitching Your Surface Pattern Designs

If you’re anything like me you can think of TONS of reasons to not send out those pitch emails. Maybe you’re not sure if your work is “good enough”. Maybe you are waiting to have your website or online portfolio “perfect”. Or maybe you are just so scared to hit send that you leave your pitch emails in your draft folder indefinitely. 

If you’re anything like me you can think of TONS of reasons to not send out those pitch emails. Maybe you’re not sure if your work is “good enough”. Maybe you are waiting to have your website or online portfolio “perfect”. Or maybe you are just so scared to hit send that you leave your pitch emails in your draft folder indefinitely. 

I’ve been there. I’ve felt all of those feelings. But I’m here to tell you that the minute I started sending out pitches consistently is exactly when things started to change for me and my business. In this post I’m going to walk you through three easy steps to start pitching your surface pattern design work to companies. Before we start let me tell you a little story.

I took Shannon McNab’s Pitch Your Portfolio course (which I highly recommend) in the summer of 2022. In July of that year, I sent out my first pitch emails. It was scary and hitting that send button felt monumentous, but I did it. And what did I do afterward? Absolutely nothing. No follow-up emails, no consistent pitching from that point onward. I just sent out a few emails and called it a day. 

Exactly one year later (to the day!) I decided to try again. But this time I got serious. I decided I was going to pitch 10 companies per week and follow up with them consistently. Between August and October 2023, I sent out over 100 pitch and follow-up emails. All of those pitch emails led to my first fabric contract and one licensing deal with an outdoor apparel company. Pinch me!

So how did I do it? And can you do the same thing? I used the system outlined below and you can absolutely do the same thing.

Three Steps to Pitching Your Work

Do Your Research

Research is the first and maybe most important step in the pitching process. You need to be strategic with the companies you pitch. Look at the products they make and think about whether your artwork makes sense with their brand. For example, I have a collection of Joshua Tree National Park-inspired patterns. I pitched this work to several outdoor apparel companies because the artwork makes sense in the outdoor apparel market. There are tons of ways to do company research, but here are a few of the ways I use most often to gather companies I want to pitch.

Three ways to find companies to pitch your work to:

1. Go Shopping. Look at the products you see in stores. Snap a picture of the brand that made the product then go home and do some research on the company.
2. Ads. We are constantly being served ads on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest. Take note of the companies and if they make sense for your work, add them to your list.
3. Look to your peers. I follow so many talented artists on social media. When one of my fellow artists posts about a new collaboration I always take a look at the company website to see if my work would make sense on their products.

Craft Your Pitch Emails

The first few pitch emails might feel a little bit hard to write, but just remember this is a process and you are going to continue learning as you go. I have found that the more pitch emails you send the easier it is to customize them and hit that send button. We gain confidence through action.I have a short recipe I use to write my pitch emails, here are the ingredients:

Start with a compliment. Do you love their company mission? Their latest product release? Let them know.

Introduce yourself. Do you call yourself an artist, designer, or surface pattern designer? Tell them who you are and what you do.

Describe your artwork and why it makes sense with their products. This is your chance to give them a glimpse into your company’s personality. Is your work playful? Bright? Calming and subdued? 

Attach images of your work to the email. I generally attach between 2-4 sale sheets as low-resolution image files.

Say thanks for your consideration. Art directors get lots of pitch emails every day. Be sure to thank them for their time.

Follow-up

I know I said earlier that company research might be the most important step, but following up comes in at a close second. Art directors get tons of pitch emails every week which means your email could get lost in the shuffle. I want you to commit to the follow-up right now. It’s the secret sauce to this whole pitching process.

I like to follow up one week after sending my first pitch email. I always hit reply to my original email so they can see I’ve made contact before. This also brings the artwork I sent in the first email back up to the top of their inbox. In the follow-up let them know you’re still interested in working with the company and add 1-2 more sale sheets as an attachment so they can see a bit more of your artwork.

Conclusion

That’s the process in a nutshell. Of course, there are tons of other details I could add, if you need more guidance and want to learn systems and tools you can put in place I can’t recommend Shannon’s course enough. She is a truly gifted and very experienced teacher. 

My goal for this post was to help those of you who are ready to start pitching get a little nudge in the right direction. If you are looking for accountability around pitching I’m in the process of developing an email course that will help keep you consistent and motivated to keep pitching. I’d love for you to join the waitlist so I can let you know as soon as I launch. Sign-up using the form below to be added to the waitlist.

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