Starting a design career from scratch with Bärbel Dressler
Today I'm thrilled to bring you an interview with Bärbel Dressler, a surface pattern designer who has taken a huge leap to change careers and forge ahead with her own design business. Bärbel's story is truely inspiring, and I think will help those of you out there who do not have an art background and are anxious about trying to make a go at it.
Bärbel is very forthcoming in her answers to my questions, and does a lovely job of painting a picture of what her journey has been like. This is a must read...enjoy!
Bärbel Dressler artwork
Hi Bärbel! Tell us a bit about your background and life before pattern design?
I’m Bärbel Dressler, Swedish pattern designer, Skillhare teacher and founder of Bear Bell Productions, which is the one-woman show I run from my home studio just south of Stockholm.
I’ve been in business as a pattern designer for nearly four years now. I attended art school for a year and took a row of drawing classes when I was younger. However, it wasn't until I turned 40 that I realized I could turn my drawing skills into a career. And this is the part of my story I often refer to as "The Big Detour". Believe it or not, I was one Facebook post away from pursuing a career as a stand up comedian instead. Thank God that didn’t happen!
Drawing has always been my superpower, ever since I was a kid. Growing up in Falkenberg, a small town on the west coast of Sweden, my awareness of art as a profession was very limited. I believed there were two options - become a painter or a fashion designer. I didn’t want to pursue the first alternative. And everyone told me the fashion design industry was too hard to break in to, so I figured it was at a dead end.
Fast forward to the mid-90s. I was in college and felt pressure to stop messing around and plan for some kind of career. At that time the hottest thing on earth was web design so I decided to study that. But right around the time I graduated from College the dot-com bubble burst and I ended up working in marketing instead. I completely dropped everything creative and didn’t draw again for almost 15 years! Sad but true.
How did you get into Surface Pattern Design?
For my 40th birthday my family gifted me a weekend course in stand-up comedy. Very funny. They must have either though that I was hilarious or - more likely - that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and loosen up. I thought it was terrifying, but also a bit exciting, so I decided to try it out.
A couple of weeks before the course started I saw a Facebook post by a friend who had signed up for another weekend course, this one on pattern design. I have always been fascinated by patterns - I clearly remember trying to figure out where the wallpaper pattern of ladybugs and trailing branches started and ended in my room as a kid. Inspired by my friend, I quickly switched from comedy to pattern design.
Not only did that course broaden my perspective of patterns, but it got me drawing again. And most important, I realized that I could use my drawing superpower to create patterns for products.
Bärbel Dressler
How did you transition careers?
My discovery of pattern design was followed by a period of serious angst and frustration. I knew what I wanted to do, but felt overwhelmed by the idea of changing careers in middle of life with a family, house, two cars - the whole rat race. I couldn’t go to design school and so I thought I was stuck doing marketing for the rest of my life.
A nudge to get out of that pit came when a friend of mine who has a factory that makes clogs and sandals saw a pattern I had posted on Facebook (Facebook again!). He called me up and said he needed a pattern for a new clog sole and wondered if I could make one.
I felt confident I could do it, so I sketched up a couple of pattern ideas. A few months later the clog was in full production and my pattern was being sold on a product all over Sweden. It showed me that my dream may be possible, just not in the way that I had thought it would be.
That experience, and a serious push from my husband, Johan, got me moving towards a career as a pattern designer. Finally, after a year of therapy and a lot of dithering, I decided to quit my job and pursue my dream. And to be honest with you, at that point it wasn't much of a choice. I had to go for it. If I hadn't I most likely would have faced burn out and depression. The thought of ignoring what I believed was my fate just because it seemed impossible, or at least difficult, wasn't an option in the end.
What was it like starting a pattern design business?
I had no design experience or education to speak of. I had no existing clients. But despite that I took the leap to start building a business anyway, to build something new from scratch. It was scary as hell but also beyond wonderful. I remember going downstairs, into the kitchen to make coffee on my first day of working for myself. How free I felt, that anything was possible. I proceeded to spend the next two years studying, practicing, and doing everything I could to learn the craft and business.
Since then my business has slowly grown, and I've faced both successes and challenges. All of it has slowly brought me closer to my dream: to become an established pattern designer with a steady income again. I’ve sold a couple of my patterns to Svanefors Textil - one of Swedens largest wholesalers of home textiles and decor. And this year another pattern that I made for a company called Nantucket Kids is included in their Spring/Summer collection of children's apparel. I’ve also taken on graphic design commissions, creating logos and patterns for marketing assets. However my main business focus is on designing patterns and teaching Skillshare courses.
Skillshare courses? Tell us more about that!
Another important turning point for me in my journey towards becoming a pattern designer was discovering Skillshare and the courses Bonnie Christine offers on the platform. She taught me a lot of the design techniques I use in my work. One day I was approached by Skillshare. They asked me if I was interested in teaching too. This led me to create a course about illustration, which was followed by courses on pattern design and coloring with markers.
Over the last few years I've learned a lot about the craft of pattern design by studying old patterns and motifs. My research into the Toile de Jouy style, Indian Florals and Paisleys has influenced my work a lot and formed the topics I teach in my Skillshare courses. I study, become knowledgeable about each style, and then practice, practice, practice. When I feel I have a good bit of experience, I package this into a course to share with my fellow pattern lovers. I want them to have a shortcut to learning how to make these styles too. Right now I’m studying another classic style (that I can't tell you about just yet) that will turn into a course in the coming weeks.
So Skillshare has been a very important part of my business, both for learning new things and in generating income for my business. But I value it mostly for the community it provides, which was important for planting the seed that would later become Swedish Pattern Society.
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