The Lookbook: Tokyo Morning Lookbook // Japandi inspired print designs available for licensing

Travel is such a beautiful inspiration and our print designs are often inspired by the beauties of the world. Different cultures, colors, food. Did you know the sun shines differently wherever you go in the world?  

Travelling through Japan is a mystical experience. There’s not another culture I can think of that is kept alive. The beauty of simplicity. The balance between humans and nature. The wonderful minimalist aesthetics of Japanese Interior decoration and graphic design. Their need for joy and color, compensating all this. It’s a delicate mix and so inspiring for artists to work with.

Over the years we did create some Japanese inspired surface pattern designs. This year we wanted to expand our collection with a glimpse of traditional. Translated into new minimalist Japandi style print designs. Resulting in the new Tokyo Morning Collection. Stay tuned if you’re a fan of everything Japanese like we are because we are also working on a series of Kawaii animals with a vintage twist. Want to be kept in the loop and get these new prints straight into your inbox? Sign up to our newsletter and become a Little Smilemakers insider.

These designs are now available for licensing. And we also have some of these designs available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

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.

How to license artwork for your business? Licensing print designs in 3 easy steps // Everything you need to know to start licensing pattern designs

We work together with lot’s of small start-ups and usually these are the best collabs. It is lovely to connect with new business owners and mompreneurs that are starting their new ventures. But licensing can be a little scary. Every step you take is new and there are so many things to consider if you launch your own product. With this blog post, we’d like to give you a little more insight into licensing artwork for your products.

We’ve been licensing print designs for over 8 years now and every time we collab with newbies we see how this process makes them super insecure. We understand that hiring an artist for artwork can be scary, but it’s not all that complicated and expensive as you might think. This piece is for all you peeps who are on the break of licensing their first pattern designs. These are three easy steps to license artwork for your business.

Step 1 // What do you want?
Before you license designs, it might be good to think about the following. Are you looking for a complete visual brand-wide signature, a coherent collection containing print designs that involve working around a theme or season? Or would you like to license single print designs? Working in collections might be a little pricey. Most starting businesses we collab with ask us to license single prints and later on grow into licensing collections. Make sure you know what you’d like to tell your customer. What’s your vision? Together we can select prints that are carrying your own unique vision. We have lot’s of themes, color palettes and styles to choose from and we’re always up to date about trends and waves going on on the global market. If you know what suits your company best, what you’d like to reflect, we can assist you in picking the right prints. Free of charge.

Step 2 // Pricing
We have over 10.000 non-exclusive print designs to choose from. We have been building our portfolio for over 10 years now. These designs are also available in our Spoonflower shop, and because we can monetize our prints this way we can offer our print designs at low cost. If you license our non-exclusive designs know that we never license prints to similar companies. We always check availability first. This way you can have unique print designs and don’t have to worry about competition and you don’t have to spend a crazy amount of cash. Pretty good right?

Step 3 // The process
Once you’ve selected a bunch of prints, or just one (we value each and every customer!) we’ll prepare the files & invoice for you. Depending on what you’ll be using the prints for we can send you the files you need. The standard three we usually sent out are a high resolution .tiff. The original vector or .psd image. And a .jpg visual. Some designs are made in vector, some are made in watercolors, depending on the origin of the design we’ll make sure you’ll get the right files to send to your own printer or producer. Once payment has been completed these files will be sent to your inbox. Usually, the licensing process only costs two business days. Once you have all files but need further assistance you can always reach out and ask whatever you need. We’re here to assist you even when all files are sent.

Of course, we do not only license our non-exclusive designs. Each quarter we also send out exclusive work to customers who signed up for our mailing. You can also receive these in your inbox. Just send us a quick message. Note that exclusive designs are available form €268. If that’s a little pricey for you licensing our existing designs might be a better solution. We can always tweak colors and detailing and create a one-of-a-kind print.

If you are looking to create a series of print designs for your business and would like a fully exclusive range of designs, that is an option too of course. Since every single custom design process is different we’re happy to chat with you about how this works and we look forward to discussing this directly by email. Just reach out and send us a message.