Come join us for another creative new year // Happy 2024!

Welcome to 2024! The 13th year of our studio. How time flies, it’s a little mad thinking back. All the projects we worked on, the vast amount of pattern designs we created for so many people all over the globe. Branding projects, logo designs and so much more. 

Our very first gig was one for a Dutch brand: Kruidvat. We designed prints for bags and notebooks. We soon started working for some German fabric suppliers. Attended trade shows in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. We also found out why contracts are important and not all clients are honest people. We were trailblazers back then. Print designs were fairly new. Most artwork was still bought during trade shows and everything we did was a first. We didn’t have any peers to follow or look up to. A brand-new branch of business: surface pattern designing. I only learnt it was called surface pattern designer years in, can you believe?

We started building a proper foundation, some ground rules for our business, hired legal peeps helping with contracts. We soon learnt: stay away from big fish after figuring out; when your heart’s in it, you better make sure the people you work with have the same ethical values. So we turned away from energy draining businesses and money sharks and started focusing on smaller start up collabs, and we still Louise the process of seeing those new businesses grow and develop.

13 Years later...
Now 13 year later we have come at a point where the prints are easy to purchase, copy cats are everywhere and social media makes it impossible to protect created artwork. Those trailblazing days are long gone! After years of working our socials, this year we are opting for a less active social media approach, and we’ll be focusing more on the relationships we have. Hopefully that will give us some more energy to move inward (artists rule #1) create instead of trying to keep up with the rat race that once was a great (energizing) marketing tool but now turned into a toxic relationship. Time to get some more distance. We’ll be directing more people to our newsletter, use our website for updates & new work, post artist diaries here on the blog now and then, and of course we’ll still be posting on Insta, we love sharing finished results and love watching client posts. But it’ll be less of a chunk of our time & money spend on there. And that feels amazing already. Let’s get this 2024 party started!


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Getting personal - What it's like to live with chronic illness

My goodness! It's been two years since our last blog post up here. Time to refresh this page with some projects we created these past years. But first a little personal note.

The past few years have been a rollercoaster. With changes in so many ways. I am sure you can relate that there was a time before and a time after Covid? During Covid we were super busy. So many people started making masks from our fabrics. People got laid off and started their own companies and licensed our designs. It was a blessing getting so much extra work in but it took a toll.

In early 2020 right after Covid hit I moved the studio and my home to a new city. I was super excited to start a new venture and playing house with my BF. But we managed to buy a house with so many hidden problems it took us three years to only fix the things that were priority. Thanks to Covid prices were nuts and schedules delayed. Again and again. Thankfully with all the new business coming in I could actually keep afloat financially. And skip rent for a studio, since no one was allowed to work in one space anyway. But I did know, I was ignoring my body. Some of you might already know my story, here's a quick recap. When I was a kid I had problems with my joints. Growing older the problems became more chronic. And pain was always just around the corner. Going to a concert, waiting in the cold to catch a train took a toll. Over the years I managed to live with it. Create my own working schedule around it. Take rest when needed. Say no. And listen to my body. But Covid and renovations meant I had to put that on hold till things settled down. So I did.

This year I decided to slow down a bit. Work fewer hours working from the new studio space. I knew I had to take rest or my body would catch up with me. But boy did I underestimate the backlash! Starting with every-day migraines from November (thank god for my Thai Masseuse!) Now my body's inflamed all the time. Pain is constant again. And, that's shitty I can tell you! Thought I had that figured out already. But here we are again. You can do everything right for months, and still it's not getting much better. Maybe you have a chronic illness as well. It's lonely to step back and put life on hold. It felt on hold already for years with Covid and the house. Now it was my body not budging an inch.

So the last months have been a challenge. And how i cope with challenges is usually by creating. I don't like to talk about my pain much. But not doing so also causes a lack of understanding. Not being seen. Feeling lonely. I don't like to swallow in my drama. So what I did was create a design, a seamless pattern of course. With my expressions and thoughts about how it feels being isolated and pulled down by my body. Maybe you recognize yourself. Maybe you know someone who suffers from a chronic illness. Take a moment and reach out. Without judgement. That's all we need to lift our spirits a bit on a shitty day.

Licensing print designs
You can purchase this design on fabric or license this print for your own production. If you like to license our prints for your business too please send us a message. We also have some more specific designs available. To support cancer awareness, MS. reach out if you need something custom for your project. We license print designs all over the world, and we love to welcome new collabs.

Top 5 All time fave Little Smilemakers print designs / Fabric & Surface Designs

We’ve been creating print designs for a loooooong time now. Back in the day, it was easy to fill in the gap. There was no such thing as a designer licensing print designs. So business took off quite easily. Nowadays the surface design market is very saturated and most creative academies offer surface design as a course. Not in my days. I have a background in graphic designs and typography. The typography studies let me find the balance in every pattern I create up until today. We started out creating things that just weren’t there yet. And over the years we’ve been doing trend reports and we’ve seen both short and long trend waves come and pass us by. But some designs just never seem to leave our licensing list.

For this post, we selected our 5 most popular print designs to date. Some were made over 10 years ago and got picked up by a trend. Some got popular simply because they ended up in a Chinese database and turned into the most used but also stolen designs. And some are just good designs, thank god for the good designs, right? A properly balanced, color sweet spot print design.

1 // The Scandinavian Hedgehogs
We made these hedgehogs 7 years ago. At first, this surface design was only available on a white background. And most of our best selling pieces are created with a white background first. The white is a crisp clean contrast with any color used. And therefore perfect for baby nursery and clothing pieces. Pure and soft. Now, this design has been licensed all over the world numerous times. And the hedgehogs are also available in versions with gender-specific and gender-neutral backgrounds. This one still remains our best selling design to date.
Shop Hedgehogs here.



2 // The Monochrome Grid
I personally am not a very big fan of checkered designs. But simple basic check prints were missing from our portfolio. I came up with the Monochrome Grid around the same time the hedgehogs were made. I was creating an exclusive design series that was created from raw brush strokes and this grid designs didn't make the cut. Little did I know this would be one of our hot selling designs for years to come.
Shop grid designs here.

3 // Scandinavian Bunnies
There are a couple of evergreen themes in print designs. This bunny design is not a typically popular theme for kids patterns. Around Easter, we always see an increase of bunny interest but this one has been selling like mad for years, all year long. It might be the illustration that is suitable for both babies and older kids but I think it mostly has to do with the fact gender neutral kids products are very popular. And the bunny is not gender-specific like some: cats for girls, dinos for boys. It's fun to see so many different things created with this fabric. It's available in various sizes and colors and available for licensing.
Shop Bunnies here.



4 // Colorful Rainbows
Talking about evergreen designs, this rainbow design certainly is one. This particular design has been our all-time fave gender-specific design and has been licensed for girls clothes and baby nursery. At the moment, the rainbows are also very much on-trend and another rainbow design of ours is rapidly climbing the best selling charts. I am pretty sure this one will keep taking the lead though, the rainbow trend is just a wave and this print is less influenced by trend with its multiple colors and simplistic shape it's a contemporary design. Perfect for girls, even though we also have a version for boys without the pinks, this one remains a hit.
Shop Rainbows here.

5 // Geometric Indian Animals
Our last design finishing off the top 5 faves is our geometric Indian Animals design. Another design suitable for both genders. These animals were licensed to numerous companies, for baby bedding, kids fashion, and new creations made with our Spoonflower fabric keep popping up on our feeds. Definitely one of our fave designs this one. it was a blast coming up with these quirky animals full of personality.
Shop Indian Animals here.

As you can see in this top 5, most of our designs that sell best are not specific to gender. And we love the fact that parents and customers get more conscious about the durability of their products. A great trend! All of these designs are however also available in more girly and boyish tones if you do want to create something specific to gender. They're available in our Spoonflower shop and available to license directly if you wish to use our design for your business. They can be used for all sorts of products, not only on paper or fabric. If you're curious to know more just send us a message or check our website for more info and rates about licensing.