Liz Kohler Brown is a designer and hand letterer based in North Carolina. Her work is vibrant, playful, and full of detailed linework and has been featured in Target, Minted, (RED), and on a whole host of products sold around the world. Liz loves creating eye-catching designs for companies that want to bring a bold and whimsical feel to their products and publications.

Jess Miller is a designer and illustrator based in sunny Southern California. She has a background in toy package design but discovered a real passion for illustration during the pandemic. In just four years Jess established a full-fledged illustration company, specializing in hand lettering, surface pattern design, and character portraits. Her whimsical style is infused with bright pops of color, layered textures, and feel good messaging. Jess is most inspired by nature, retro artwork, and vintage design. Her work can be found on greeting cards, home goods, tech accessories, book covers, packaging, planners and more!

Cat Coquillette is an international artist, entrepreneur, and educator, running her entire creative brand, CatCoq, from all over the globe. Cat travels the world full-time as a nomadic artist. In fact, many of her illustrations are inspired by her firsthand observations and encounters from her travels.

CatCoq artwork and designs can be found worldwide in stores including Urban Outfitters, Target, Barnes & Noble, Anthropologie, Modcloth, Nordstrom, Bed Bath & Beyond, among many others. Cat is a keynote speaker for entrepreneur and design conferences around the world. Her writing, interviews and design work have been featured by Forbes, CNN, US Weekly, Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, and The New York Post.

Cat’s online creative courses have helped over half a million students gain the skills and confidence to pursue their creative passions. Her classes are for all levels and everyone is welcome to join and discover new opportunities.

For more information, visit www.catcoq.com, follow her on Instagram @catcoq, or contact her directly [email protected]

Jehane is the creative heart and mind behind UK-based Illustration Agency Jehane Ltd. A successful designer in her own right, Jehane has licensed hundreds of her own designs all over the world. One of the first designers in the 1990's to use quotes and lettering in surface pattern, her work inspired a trend which is commonplace today. She founded JEHANE Ltd in 2018 with a vision to be the most imaginative, most alive, and most loved Artist's Agency. Renowned for her exceptional eye and creative approach, Jehane personally represents twenty artists from the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, and New Zealand. Her clients include Chronicle Books, LEGO, Anthropologie, and many more. Active within the artistic community, she hosts a popular weekly art challenge 'Jehane's Golden Thread' which runs all year round. Jehane has given many talks about her artwork including at the V&A.

Meet Margo Tantau, the creative force behind Tantau Studio, where magic happens through the Windowsill Chats podcast, vibrant workshops, and a buzzing creative hub.

Margo is all about bringing art into the world, especially by celebrating the work of fellow creators. Over three decades, she's dived into every corner of the Creative Industry. Corporate work, entrepreneurial adventures, and products from her own studio have given her a hands-on understanding of design, manufacturing, retail, and artistic management.

Margo’s sweet spot? Product development and licensing, where she helps bold artists break boundaries. With her eye for style, she’s collaborated with companies like Creative Co-Op, Hallmark, and Studio-M, turning ideas into must-have products.

 Her passion? Watching artists and creatives soar by helping them focus on what makes them shine. Margo Tantau is the driving force behind a vibrant, innovative space where creativity thrives and dreams take flight.

Genna Blackburn is an illustrator, surface designer and educator in Detroit, Michigan. Her work is a playful exploration of color and shape stemming from her background in graphic design. She loves drawing, seeing her work on fun products out in the world, and teaching other artists what she knows about creating artwork and presenting it in a beautiful portfolio. As a licensing artist, she's had the pleasure of seeing her work on products for companies like Target, Hello Bello, Papyrus and Jiggy Puzzles.

Lissie is an Illustrator, Graphic Designer, and Art Educator.

Working as a professional designer since 2013, she became a fully licensed artist in 2021. As an educator, Lissie shares her expertise as a Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration at a leading University, where she's developed curriculum for students from the beginning to senior levels. Her passion lies in blending traditional and digital art forms seamlessly, with a keen eye on commercial illustration and product development, as well as marketing and creative business.

In her artwork, Lissie's aim is to celebrate the home and the nature surrounding our lives through all of the artwork that she creates. In her free time she can be found wandering outside, spending time with her family and friends, reading, drawing, musing, and all around laughing and breathing deeply as often as she can.

Sarah Watts is an illustrator, art educator and surface designer for Ruby Star Society. Over the years Sarah has worked with over 35 companies ranging from the fashion to the literary to the stationery and gift industries with brands like Target, Hallmark, and Penguin Books. She specializes in teaching Photoshop, surface design, and drawing techniques. Hundreds of students have learned advanced art skills in her flagship course From Paint to Pattern and through her sketchbook membership, Sketchbook Squad. Sarah also loves to make people laugh and is currently taking improv classes. Join her newsletter to get free art tips and some giggles.

Bärbel Dressler is a surface pattern designer and educator with a nerdy passion for historical patterns. She has created patterns inspired by historical styles for clients since 2014; for apparel, accessories, packaging, home textiles, kitchen textiles and wallpaper. Since 2017 she has taught her techniques and methods for creating historically inspired patterns to over 40,000 students, with a mission to help pattern designers take their design skills and abilities to new heights.

Karen Schipper is an illustrator and designer of paper goods. Growing up in Hong Kong, she acquired a love for stationery and colors. After a decade career in graphic design, Karen took her skills and applied it to creating her own products. Her work is bright and playful and aims to bring a little more joy into this world.

Marissa Huber is an artist and surface pattern designer who works primarily in gouache, acrylic, digital drawing, collage and embroidery. Marissa’s pattern work is influenced by sunshine, memories, personal meaning, colors and plants from daily life in tropical South Florida. Her brightly colored patterns are licensed on bags, surfboards, album covers, fabric and home goods. Select clients include MB Greene, Boardlams, Caitlin Wilson Design, and Minted. Her work has been featured in HGTV Magazine, Create!, and Brooklyn Art Library.

Inspired by her art practice, Marissa co-founded Carve Out Time for Art and co-authored “The Motherhood of Art” with Heather Kirtland to encourage others to prioritize their creative pursuits in their own way. She’s a CTA Certified Life Coach and specializes in helping clients achieve big and small dreams within their current life. Marissa has been a speaker at Altitude Summit, Camp Minted, Art Brand Alliance, and a guest lecturer at organizations including Delaware College of Art and Design, El Paso Community College, Drexel University and Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Teen Sketch Program.

Her greatest joy (besides her kids) is connecting with kindred spirits over an experience, a funny story, or shared dreams and feeling positively lit up. She believes in keeping it real, taking her dreams seriously, but not herself too seriously. She has a professional career as a consulting director for Workplace Strategy, and lives in South Florida with her (painter) husband Mike East, two kids, mom and chocolate lab.

Clara Nartey is a Ghana-born artist based in the U.S. After earning a masters degree in business, Nartey went on to develop a rigorous self-taught art practice. Her unique artistic style meshes mark-making using threads (machine embroidery, and quilting) with digital painting.
Nartey’s bold, colorful, and textured works have been exhibited widely including at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Yellowstone Art Museum, Visions Museum of Textile Arts, and Morris Museum.
Her work is held in both private and institutional collections like that of Yale University and Dana Hall. She’s also been featured in publications such as Contemporary Art Issue, Art Forum, and Create Magazine!

Grounded in a signature style that is natural, warm, earthy, and sophisticated, Cara's work spans across several artistic mediums including graphic design, surface pattern design, and pottery. She embodies her aesthetic not only through these disciplines but in all facets of her life, as she wholeheartedly believes that authentic creative expression is the single best way to deeply connect to ourselves so that we, in turn, attract the people and opportunities with which we are most aligned.

Besides integrating this philosophy in her own life and work, Cara collaborates with clients unearthing the core essence of their businesses to create harmonious branding visuals. Since she began her freelance career in 2018, she has designed for more than 75 brands.

An unapologetic advocate for trusting your instincts and pursuing the things that light you up, Cara embraces an ever-evolving, fluid, and certainly non-linear career path that leaves wide openings for spontaneity, growth, and inspiration.

Tricia Robinson is a mixed media artist who loves to paint in a fun and maximalist way! She creates stories around her art, which is often focused on her love for books, flowers, fashion design, bike riding, and the beach.

Tricia loves the wonky of life which she describes as "the beautiful imperfect." When the painted flowers on the canvas are lopsided and her dining room table is leaning towards the middle, she smiles.

Tricia states, "When I let go of performance, the have to's, and the shoulds and the culture of southern culture and just say, 'This is me!', I feel like a bird just released from its cage." 🌸
Tricia loves to draw girls and dresses and houses and flowers, just like she did when she was eight years old. She loves fashion design, just like she did as a teenager. But she loves wonky fashion design—mismatched colors and fabrics.

Tricia's art career started over 20 years ago. A little gallery at the beach started selling her paintings. Soon she entered art shows. Before long she was featured in Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue and sold several paintings to celebrities.

She started “Art Nights” with friends, painting around her dining room table. And then she started hosting art camps and retreats. As she kept dreaming of new ideas and plans, she created her "Paint Happy" eCourses. Now she has an online art club for women of all ages called "God Made Girl Club."

Tricia loves inspiring others to go after their dreams and be all God meant them to be.
She believes life is so much more fun when we live with a playful spirit, imagination, and creativity. Two of her favorite quotes are: "Play is the highest form of research," by Albert Einstein. And “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire,” by St. Catherine of Siena.

Tricia wants to continue to inspire others to do just that: embrace the "play of life" and "be who God meant you to be." She can almost guarantee there will be an added skip to your step and twinkle in your eye if you lean more into these little secrets of life.

Sarah Bourne Rafferty earned a degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography and Book Arts at Warren Wilson College, outside of Asheville, NC. Her love and appreciation of Alternative Process Photography was born during that time. Sarah taught in the traditional classroom before completing an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. During her time in the city, Sarah started to play with the cyanotype process and develop perspectives that would later become integral to the design of her own small business. A few years later Atwater Designs was born. Sarah taught darkroom and digital photography for many years after, before taking Atwater Designs full time in 2020. Atwater Designs is a cyanotype design studio specializing in the creation and education of the cyanotype - the oldest photograhic process. Sarah lives in West Chester, PA in an 1800’s home with her husband, dog and cat. Her studio is on the property and the place where she hosts workshops and creative retreats in the sunny months of the year.

Cara Cummings is an accomplished botanical artist and educator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Specializing in watercolor, Cara draws endless inspiration from her diverse garden and the natural beauty she is surrounded by. She is known for creating exquisite original botanical art, fine art prints, stationery, and home goods.

Cara is deeply passionate about teaching the art of observation and inspiring others to elevate their creativity and their craft through daily practice. Her work not only captures the intricate details of the botanicals she paints but also encourages a deeper connection with the natural world.

Colleen is a surface pattern designer and coach for creatives. Her design style is painterly and feminine and her coaching style is caring and compassionate. She focuses on giving creatives clarity and clear next steps in their business journey and getting them unstuck in moments of overwhelm and indecision. Colleen has licensed her work in several industries including fabrics, children, crafts, accessories, and home goods. She is also a mom of four, a watercolorist, and loves to make fresh chai in the afternoons (yes to lots of ginger and cardamom, quiet moments of rest, and sipping tea with a friend!)

With a brush in hand and heart inspired by nature, history and the artisanal, Melissa Johnson, creates art to evoke feelings of rest, beauty and connection. Outdoors often her designs are influenced natural rhythms in nature. Melissa designs for those who seek both style and substance in their surroundings.

Cassandra is a Surface Pattern Designer, Artist and Mama rooted in the high desert mountains of Central Oregon. Her work includes textiles, wallpaper, prints and supporting Education for emerging Surface Pattern Designers. Her artwork is drawn from a childlike wonder of the flora, fauna and folklore of the rivers and forest. When the paints + pencils are put away, you’ll find her working on her budding homestead in Bend, OR with her husband and two daughters, or operating as Chief Expedition Officer outside running, gravel biking, camping, paddling, and playing in the mountains, forests, and rivers and trails of her hometown.

California sunshine meets Mexican vibrancy in the life of artist, designer, and educator Xhico. With studios in California and Oaxaca, Mexico, Xhico's creative spirit knows no bounds. He ignites a passion for design in others through his popular Skillshare courses and signature "Color Camp" and fosters a thriving community through his membership program, "Club Xhico."

Xhico's journey through art and design is a testament to embracing curiosity and lifelong learning. From his early days designing album covers to his current focus on captivating surface patterns, his 30+ years of experience shine through in every vibrant, unexpected creation.

Yet, Xhico's influence extends far beyond his design work. He is a beacon of empowerment for fellow creatives, fostering growth through educational programs, hosting retreats in inspiring locations like Oaxaca, Mexico, and fostering collaborations that honor diverse cultures. His artistry is a tapestry woven with a deep desire to connect, inspire, and uplift.

Liz Kohler Brown is a designer and hand letterer based in North Carolina. Her work is vibrant, playful, and full of detailed linework and has been featured in Target, Minted, (RED), and on a whole host of products sold around the world. Liz loves creating eye-catching designs for companies that want to bring a bold and whimsical feel to their products and publications.

Jess Miller is a designer and illustrator based in sunny Southern California. She has a background in toy package design but discovered a real passion for illustration during the pandemic. In just four years Jess established a full-fledged illustration company, specializing in hand lettering, surface pattern design, and character portraits. Her whimsical style is infused with bright pops of color, layered textures, and feel good messaging. Jess is most inspired by nature, retro artwork, and vintage design. Her work can be found on greeting cards, home goods, tech accessories, book covers, packaging, planners and more!

Erin Kendal is an Aussie mama of two who kicked her uncreative corporate job to the curb after using Spoonflower to launch a successful career in surface pattern design—and it's transformed her family’s life!

Pattern and color obsessed, she never tires of seeing her designs on products around the world: from wallpaper at Australia Zoo to pet accessories in the US, cloth nappies in the UK, and filling the pages of a quilting book... to name a few.

Now she's on a mission to inspire and empower other designers to find the creative success they dream of, too.

With lukewarm coffee in hand, (thanks to 4 kids running around) Raquel brings intentional designs to Catholic families through her product based business, The Little Rose Shop. The Little Rose Shop features faith inspired designs and utilizes a combination of print on demand and manufactured products. Raquel has mastered using print on demand to effectively test and read the market in order to scale to a 7 figure business. You can often find her in slippers, reading all the business books and ready to talk shop for hours!

Longina Phillips Designs was established over 30 years ago. From humble beginnings as a one-person studio, it has become a pioneering studio in the field of print design & the sharing of print knowledge. Its global team infuses each project with innovative perspectives and a commitment to design craftsmanship. From tailor-made patterns to cutting-edge surface designs, the team crafts visuals that narrate compelling stories that surprise expectations.

Meet Margo Tantau, the creative force behind Tantau Studio, where magic happens through the Windowsill Chats podcast, vibrant workshops, and a buzzing creative hub.

Margo is all about bringing art into the world, especially by celebrating the work of fellow creators. Over three decades, she's dived into every corner of the Creative Industry. Corporate work, entrepreneurial adventures, and products from her own studio have given her a hands-on understanding of design, manufacturing, retail, and artistic management.

Margo’s sweet spot? Product development and licensing, where she helps bold artists break boundaries. With her eye for style, she’s collaborated with companies like Creative Co-Op, Hallmark, and Studio-M, turning ideas into must-have products.

 Her passion? Watching artists and creatives soar by helping them focus on what makes them shine. Margo Tantau is the driving force behind a vibrant, innovative space where creativity thrives and dreams take flight.