Have you heard the term “filler pattern” or “blender pattern” and wondered what the heck it meant? In the world of surface design, these terms refer to a simple repeating pattern. There are lots of different terms for this type of pattern (simple coordinates, simple patterns, filler patterns, blender patterns) but in this blog post we’ll refer to them as blender patterns or blenders.

In this post, I’ll walk through everything you need to know about blenders including how they’re used in practical surface design applications, how to design them effectively, and how to quickly whip them up by repurposing elements from existing illustrations.

Blender Patterns Explained

Let’s demystify the humble blender pattern and talk about how to incorporate them into your surface design collections.

A blender pattern is a simple pattern related to the theme and subject of your collection. Adding simple blenders is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make your collection more strategic and enticing for licensing partners.

Take stationery for example: A hero illustration from your collection might serve as the cover design for a planner. But the blenders will act as a cute accent for the inner cover and page dividers.

You could pitch the hero illustration on its own, but if your potential licensing partner was looking for accenting artwork, they might pass over your collection if it doesn’t include supporting pieces like blender patterns!

Here’s an example of this from one of my collaborations. The hero illustration is on the cover of the planner, and inside it’s filled with coordinating blender patterns!

The Benefits of Creating Blender Patterns

Before we dive into more details about how to design blenders, I wanted to share why they shouldn’t be overlooked. It can be easy to dismiss simple patterns thinking that they won’t be as commercially viable as complex designs that took you hours to create.

I would encourage you not to sleep on these small but mighty designs, though!

I’ll be honest, I find blender patterns kind of challenging. I love to design complex patterns and illustrations because, well…it’s just more fun!

But when it comes down to it, blenders work GREAT on products. Many licensing partners are looking for more simple designs. I started to add simpler patterns to my portfolio a couple of years ago after my agents encouraged me to do so.

And my agents were right! The simple patterns I created quickly started to get attention from licensees.

Almost immediately after adding this tiny, simple mushroom pattern to my portfolio, it got picked up for licensing for an adorable collection with Graphique.

I have countless complex mushroom designs in my portfolio, but none of them were as desirable as the simple blender pattern for this client’s needs. They were looking for something that not only featured a trending motif, but was simple, elevated, and cute!

It just goes to show that there is a market for even the simplest of patterns. Blender patterns can pack a big punch from a licensing standpoint!

Now, let’s move on and learn how to design an effective blender pattern.

The Anatomy of a Blender Pattern

Blender patterns are the simplest designs in any collection which means they usually include:

Smaller elements
Simple patterns
A limited color palette

If you want to learn more about the other elements in a collection (aka hero designs and complex patterns) check out this blog post about how to plan a collection!

There’s no right or wrong way to design a blender pattern, but here are the few rules of thumb that I use to help me keep my blenders simple and clean.

Use 1-2 main elements for the design

It’s helpful to keep things extremely limited when designing a blender pattern. Stick to one or two elements, and make sure that if you’re designing the blender as part of a collection, that the elements tie in with the other illustrations in your collection.

The easiest way to do this is to repurpose elements from your hero illustrations. I’ll dive into this in more detail in the next section of this post.

Use 2-3 colors for the palette

To keep your blender pattern as simple as possible, try paring down the larger palette you used in the other pieces of your collection and just select two or three colors to work with. This will ensure that your blender is cohesive without being too complex.

How to Design Blenders by Repurposing Elements

Now it’s time to talk about my favorite design hack – repurposing elements from existing illustrations!

When I’m designing a new collection, I always start with my hero illustrations. These are the main, complex illustrations that carry the collection and determine the theme.

As I design the hero illustrations, I make sure to keep all of the individual elements on their own layers. This means that I can isolate them later and turn them into a simpler pattern.

I also make sure that as I’m designing, I keep all of the elements whole. If I’m drawing a flower, for example, and that flower is “cut off” behind the main hero design, I actually draw the entire flower so that I can reuse it later without having to draw anything from scratch or modify it.

It’s all about working smarter, not harder!

After you’ve finished the hero design, you can choose which elements you might want to incorporate into your blender. Pick one or two elements from the hero and duplicate them to create a brand new piece of artwork!

Pro Tip: Use a different background color on your blender pattern so that it shows the versatility of your designs when presented as a collection.