The Pattern Challenge - Summer 26'
About the challenge
Melanie created this Instagram drawing challenge back in 2020, when she needed a boost of inspiration and wanted something to keep herself accountable. The challenge began with her creating a list of prompts for herself…which she never thought she’d share but she remembers her partner saying “Why don’t you share these online? Other illustrators might want to join you!”. And so she did. She shared the prompts. She talked about her love of patterns and how this challenge would focus 100% of them. This is how The Pattern Challenge was born.
How to take part
1) Create a pattern for each prompt. You can use any medium you like! Whatever you decide on, aim to create a professional looking result (which means your final pattern will be digital if possible - even if you painted it on paper to start with).
2) Share your pattern every other day on Instagram and tag @melanie.johnsson AND @mimi.for.creatives in your post and stories. Use the correct hashtag for the challenge #thepatternchallengesummer26 AND the specific hashtag for the prompt… #thepatternchallengesummer26WAVES (this isn’t a real prompt for this one, just an example ;)
3) Enjoy the ride! You can create the patterns in advance and share them in August or you can wing it and create all your patterns in August. This Challenge should remain fun.
4) The goal is for you to create new work you’re proud of, share it and make new friends - a lot of illustrators and surface designers get discovered during this challenge.
What’s new with this edition
This year, we’re involving Mimi. Melanie will be, as usual, sharing her favourite patterns in her stories and so will Mimi! We’re planning to do a weekly round up of our favourites on our feed, so keep your eyes peeled for that too! So make sure to follow both @melanie.johnsson and @mimi.for.creatives
Thing to keep in mind
Don’t overthink it, have fun with it!
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, it’s ok if you can’t do all the prompts! Life is busy.
Don’t put too much value on being re-shared by other people (Melanie included). It’s all very very very subjective.
A word about mockups
We love them! If you can, find some high quality mockups to showcase your patterns. It really helps to see how your work could look on real-life products. Its also been proven to attract clients! People need to see things to believe them ;)
Some of our favourite mockups can be found on Creative Market - look for Creatsy.
The prompts
If you subscribed to our newsletter before the 1st of July, then you’ll have received the prompts in your mailbox already. Everyone else, you’ll have to wait until the 15th July for them to be shared in The Mimi Dispatch and on Instagram @mimi.for.creatives and @melanie.johnsson
