Surface Pattern Design For Fashion
Work with Leslie Kenehan, a former studio founder and fashion print agent with over a decade of experience selling prints to fashion brands.
You interpret real briefs, build mini-collections, and refine your work through critique.
Successful fashion print designers don’t just create what they love or follow trends.
They work from direction, build collections with intent, and deliver files buyers can use.
Inside The Print Life, you work as if you’re designing for a client, studio or agent:
You receive a design brief.
You expand that brief into direction.
You design with market alignment and end use in mind.
You submit your work.
You submit for feedback & refine.
This is the cadence of working designers, season after season.
The Print Life is a studio mentorship where surface pattern designers create market ready prints. Practice with real market research reports, creative briefs and design prints for feedback and refinement. Just like a working designer.
Work alongside a mentor who has spent over a decade selling prints to fashion brands and develop the design skills buyers actually look for: Unique interpretation, market alignment, refinement & delivery.
Over time, this environment will help you to build commercial skills, usable collections, and a professional identity grounded in real world expectations.
Print
Life
Introducing
membership
Understand how to deliver prints professionally.
You’ll see how files are reviewed, what gets selected so you can continue to refine your process
Work from briefs and expand direction into usable print concepts.
refine motifs, layouts, and variations based on real-world prompts
Submit work for critique and refine it.
You’re not guessing what buyers think — you calibrate based on commercial expectations
A focused studio rhythm that keeps you designing, refining & advancing your work.
plus!
Foundations (Immediate Access)
Understand who you design for, where your work belongs, and how to express your style commercially before you spend time pitching into the wrong markets.
Quarterly Market Reports + Professional Design Briefs
Review real industry direction, interpret a professional brief, and develop prints that reflect how fashion buyers and studios think.
Skill-Building Design Labs
Short, targeted sessions that strengthen your design skills.
Skill-Building Marketing Labs - When you’re ready to pitch or build visibility
More in depth lessons for personal brand, email, Instagram and Pinterest marketing all specifically for surface pattern designers.
The Print Queue (Ongoing)
Submit your prints anytime.
Work is reviewed monthly in order of submission with commercial critique focused on usability, clarity, and market alignment.
Live Sessions
Real-time insight and discussion based on what designers need most—industry Q&A, process breakdowns, portfolio or marketing audits, and practical direction.
Member Feed
A dedicated space to ask questions, share works-in-progress, and see how other designers approach the same briefs, labs, and critiques.
what you can expect inside...
Melissa De Pascale
The program is a step by step guide on how to navigate the world of pattern design.
Tanya Freitas
“The actionable tips and information shared made the process of focusing my work and finding my unique selling point so much more intentional and effective.”
"Working through the content I created my first successful portfolio— I was invited to join the White Buffalo Studio consignment artist team! And if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, they sold my first print in just a few weeks. Yes, pinch me."
Kelly Lahl
Renee White
"Being a Print Life member has given me the confidence to build and monetize an extremely successful business in the way that I’ve dreamed of—and that is aligned with my lifestyle."
Melissa De Pascale
"Leslie has created a clear, step-by-step path that builds your business from your niche up."
Why I Created the Print Life Membership
When I first started as a freelance print designer, I quickly realized how much was missing. The resources for how to find clients, prepare files, collaborate with studios, or build a sustainable business as a print designer was little to none.
I spent years figuring it out through trial and error—working in-house, freelancing, launching studios, and learning how to navigate niche markets along the way.
This membership is everything I wish I had back then.
It’s built on real-world experience and designed to give you the clarity, structure, and support you need to grow—whether you’re just starting out or ready to level up your creative business.
You don’t have to figure it all out alone. I’ve created a path so you can move forward with confidence, direction, and purpose.
But, my prints work for any surface...
and how is the Print Life is different from anything else out there.
Picked up new clients who have come to me specifically for my handwriting
I’ve really started to feel confident in my own strengths and have actually picked up new clients who have come to me specifically for my handwriting.
Alex
Concrete steps for building my client base
Concrete steps for building my client base; defined my niche in words so I can work towards excelling in it. Clarified understanding of parts of the industry that I haven't worked in before. Feeling that there is a solid community to bounce ideas off.
Lisa
Totally unique to other surface design courses around...
Totally unique to other surface design courses around. I love the print design for fashion focus. The calm and active steps shown by Leslie are easy to follow and being able to find your market and style and then attract the right buyers is invaluable.
Jac
I completely understand! Feel free to reach out with any additional questions you have about the PLM. I am here to help!
Still on the fence?
✦ You're in Control—No Contracts, No Pressure