The secret income stream you might be missing: Art licensing

How art licensing could be the next step in your surface design business!

Many surface pattern designers are sitting on an opportunity without even realising it!

If you’ve spent hours working on patterns, building your portfolio or adding prints to your Spoonflower shop you will already be primed and ready to license your work.

What is art licensing?

Licensing your patterns means allowing a company or brand to use your pattern in exchange for a flat fee or regular royalty payments.

You send them the digital file of your pattern and they take care of everything else; they put it onto their products, sell the products and deal with the shipping and customer service.

This leaves you with time to focus on what you love – more designing!

Licensing is a fantastic way to bump up your earnings with the patterns you already have, so that you’re not solely relying on print on demand for your income.

As surface pattern designers, it’s best to have a number of different income streams in case one goes quiet for a while and this is a strand of income that can work very nicely alongside what you are already doing.

Can anyone license their art?

Yes! If you have made a piece of art, you can license it and receive income from it.

I started licensing my patterns around two years ago and I have had the opportunity to license my patterns across a number of industries in the past year including babywear, crafting, wallpaper and most recently a full collection with Cloud9 Fabrics!

You can see below just a few examples of how my patterns have come to life on real world products over the past year.

The cabins print above was a pattern I originally entered for the Spoonflower 'Cabincore' Design challenge in December 2024. I later licensed it to LoveBee Baby for their Christmas collection in 2025 and you can see it here on a very cute baby romper!

This ditsy bird print was one of my earlier patterns and actually the second pattern I ever uploaded to Instagram! I later licensed it to Vexyls for their amazing sticker by numbers kit.

I created my Garden Ducks collection at the start of 2025 and I then developed it in collaboration with Cloud9 Fabrics later in the year as 'Bountiful Acre'. It will be released in August 2026.

How do you find and connect with companies?

This can be the tricky part, and can take some investigative work, but with a bit of searching you can find all sorts of companies who reply on patterns to make their products look great!

A quick scan of any shopping centre will tell you that patterns are everywhere and indispensible to companies creating, shipping and marketing physical products.

Your job as the artist is to reach out to these companies and present your work to see if they'd like to collaborate. If you're really lucky, a company may even contact you first if they've seen a pattern they like and ask if you'd be keen to collaborate.

Can you make a full-time income just from licensing?

The short and slightly blunt answer to this question is: No, probably not! (Or at least not when you are just starting out.)

I have recently downloaded Shannon McNab's 'Surface Design Industry Survey' which is a very useful resource to compare income streams from over 1,000 artists. It's clear from this survey that while licensing is a core and valuable income stream for many artists, it is not usually the only income stream artists rely on.

Income from licensing can fluctuate as opportunities come and go and it can take a number of years for an artist to build a reliable income through licensing.

(I'm sure there are some well known artists at the top who have so many big opportunities that they can comfortably live on their licensing payouts, but for most of us, licensing needs to be one of several income streams in our business.)

For me personally, my income streams come from licensing, print on demand, teaching and selling printables on Etsy. Each one is important, but can be fragile. If one dries up or goes quiet for a few months I know the others are still there to carry me through!

I'd recommend that all surface pattern designers who hope to make an income from their work find several ways their art can make money so they are not relying on one income stream exclusively.

To begin with I ventured into licesning not for the money, but for the exposure it would give me as an artist and the opportunities it would bring. And it hasn't disappointed! Licensing is certainly a very rewarding and exciting part of my business and I still get so excited at the thought of seeing my patterns being used on real products.

As I build my portfolio and more opportunities come along, my licensing income is increasing, although I certainly would never want to rely on it exclusively. I have also found that opportunities in licensing can gather momentum, so once you have secured the first few opportunities, more start to come along, allowing you to build up your income as you go alongside the other parts of your business.

How do you start licensing?

licensing is open to anyone, but many designers are unsure of the technicalities and can get stuck on a few key questions:

How do I present my work to companies?

How do I find companies to pitch to?

What kind of files are they looking for?

How much should I charge?

Is my work even good enough?

If you are stuck with any of these questions, I have some good news!

I have been busy creating a licensing road map for beginners which will take you right through the process and help you take your first steps in licensing.

I was only at these beginner stages a couple of years ago and, as usual, I am going to be sharing everything I have found out so that you can find success with licensing too. (Including those things that you can’t find answers to anywhere else!)

This new resource is coming in a couple of weeks but while you wait I’d love to hear your specific questions on licensing so I can ensure it is meeting you exactly where you’re at on your design journey and answering all your questions.

If you haven't already, you can pop your questions below in the comments section or send me an email at jasmine@jasminehnatkova.com

Stay tuned as next week I will be sharing some common myths that can keep us paralysed when it comes to licensing and the real truths that you need to know to get started!