r/Textile_Design

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’ve seen the ads where a petite lady with fabulous hair has opened up what seems like an exciting new idea of venturing into the world of surface pattern design. You’re seeing ads that promise either a free or low dollar workshop that lasts something like 3-5 days with the promise of going from not being an artist to having your very own pattern made in 3-5 days flat.

But now you’re here. You’re here because something just doesn’t add up; doesn’t seem quite right and your instincts are correct. I’m here to tell you the truth about Immersionand the marketing tactics of Bonnie Christine so you can decide for yourself if you're falling victim to her outdated FOMO marketing tactics or if you're truly wanting to take Immersion.

Maybe you’re thinking of pulling the trigger on this self-proclaimed "world renown" surface design course where she’s taught "hundreds of thousands" of students how to be surface pattern designers. You’ve attended the free workshops and feel so inspired and want to sell everything you own just to get $2k so you can take this course and change your life so you, too, can be a surface designer and make 6 figures. 

I have hard truths for you that never get talked about publicly, but I’m so tired of seeing the inauthentic nature of it go swept under the rug or be deleted. The hard questions go unanswered or try to get ironed out smoothly with a non-answer by their inbox team.

Let's start with Bonnie herself.

First, Bonnie is not actively licensing her work. She tries, but she doesn’t make much income from licensing her work. She touts to be an expert in licensing, but she is not. Her own licensing handbook claims to be full of companies you can reach out to to pitch your work, but these companies are not companies she has actual licensing relationships with and the url’s listed are things like target.com and potterybarn.com. Anyone can type that in. There’s nothing special about it. Where this does have some value is sample email pitches, however it today's world of AI, you can easily get something off any number of AI engines for that. Not worth $99 in my opinion.

Bonnie did one licensing tradeshow in Vegas. She claimed after just a couple of hours on the first day her team could have come home and it would have been "so worth it" but she stayed and it was "so amazing." In fact, it was "so amazing" she said she booked it again for 2026, however not only did her team not go, she did not sign any deals at the expo in 2025. I'm not sure what was so amazing about it, but her Tradeshow Tell All video/documentary she showed was really all about her booth and what she did to try to stand out. I'll admit it was an absolutely gorgeous booth, but if you didn't license/get picked up, how could it have been worth it? There were rumors of being picked up by Prosper brands, but that does not appear to have any validity.

After the licensing expo, Bonnie created a handbook and documentary, charging $99 for the handbook. I don’t know about you, but going to the world’s largest licensing expo and then creating a $99 handbook like you’re an expert and marketing it as such does not make you an expert. It feels more like a money grab.

Now let’s switch gears and talk about her marketing. Bonnie is infamously known for her FOMO marketing tactics. For those of you that don’t know what that is, that’s “fear of missing out.” She created an 8 week course, charges $2,000 for it and only opens it for enrollment once per year, earning the majority of her money during that February open enrollment period. While that worked for so many years, the market has been tapped out and we’ve started noticing that because last year, for the first time, she offered a self-paced version of the course at a $500 discount in the fall time, again, starting with a free/cheap workshop that led into open enrollment for about a week or so. Then in 2026 she, again, did a free/cheap workshop that led into open enrollment for her newly recorded course, which wasn’t anything other than being recorded outside for about a week or so.

Then things went quiet until they decided to close the ability to join her Pattern+ membership whenever you want. It used to be you could sign up for the Pattern+ membership at anytime. Again, the FOMO marketing was that “we don’t know when we’ll open it again” but it’s “going up to $67” because “it’s not the same Pattern+ Membership” that it was when we started. Newsflash… It’s the EXACT same Pattern+ as when she started. Of course, she heavily pushed buying into it for a year subscription because clearly, the cash influx from FOMO didn’t work in the fall of 2025 or the newly recorded Immersion in 2026, so the only way to get more cash? More FOMO!

Things went quiet again. Then, you guessed it. Another course. Because those who can’t do, teach. And those who tap out their students, teach how to teach their students. So, what does she do? She creates another course! This time it’s called Artisan Educator and it’s an 8 week, $2,500 course on how to teach YOUR craft. On Instagram she notes that she sponsored Indie Craft Parade. By the way, Indie Craft Parade is put on by none other than her own employee. Now she’s tapping into her employees? I suppose it was a marketing effort to have access to artisans themselves. And again, you guessed it, here comes the FOMO! Enrollment is only open for *this* long and then it’s closing. The ads go all over the place and it's all about hurrying to enroll and hand over thousands of dollars.

I'm guessing enrollment didn't go well because, again, people have caught on to the FOMO marketing tactics and are not just tired of it, they are turned off by it so much they begin to look negatively upon businesses that do it.

Well, what do you know, just a couple weeks after it closes, there’s another ad going around for another cheap workshop. Only this time, the graphics are rashly put together because they have both “just $10” and “3 free days” on them because, you guessed it, another FOMO push is coming in time for Christmas. I’m sure it’s for Immersion again.

Now I'll admit, I’ve followed Bonnie for a few years. I am also a 2024 Immersion alum... not sure I'm proud of that. I’ve noted she’s rotated several staff members throughout the years, specifically her marketing department. I can’t help but wonder if she hires marketing directors who try to actually help her and because they don’t get on board with the FOMO, she finds someone that will and then when they won’t, it’s on to the next.

Here are a few things specifically that you need to know about Immersion though. Although I am an Immersion alum, I never was able to make a career in surface pattern design. The course did teach me how to create surface patterns, but the parts about actually licensing and creating income from it were like 3-5 minute, quick videos that didn’t really deep dive into it. So while it was helpful in learning Illustrator, I would not say it was at all worth $2k. I also think there's a lot to be said for creating patterns in pixel formats, not just vectors. PLENTY of people use things like Procreate, Photoshop, and Affinity Designer because they want to get certain effects that you just can't get with vectors. Bonnie teaches it like it's the only way, but it definitely isn't. I would much rather recommend Elizabeth Silver for free on YouTube.

Bonnie touts a lot of things that are partial truths and smoke in mirrors to try to earn money. She also has a website to try to show off her success stories. Many of the quotes and stories you hear of are small snippets, sometimes taken out of context, to make her look good or make her students look more successful than they actually are. I'm not going to call out any student in particular, but one student in particular that she has used as a huge success story that was able to do this full time for a brief period had to go get a full time job because it didn't consistently pay the bills. While she obviously can't guarantee that you'll earn money just because you take her course, I think the quotes about being life changing or starting a new career are bogus. Many of the people doing that are teaching it now as well, because again, they couldn't earn livable incomes on just being surface designers alone. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think there's a level of transparency that needs to be had there.

While I won’t tell you how to spend your money, I will tell you all of these things so that you can make a better informed decision on if this is something you feel you really want or if you only want it because you fear missing out. There are so many other great, free resources to help get you started. One thing is for sure, when I start seeing these ads for "never before done" or "new course" or more frequent free or cheap workshops, it stinks of desperation and I can't help but wonder if it's a sinking ship.

I’m looking to hire a part time creative designer for my clothing brand who specializes in embroidery and unique apparel designs. I’m looking for someone who can create concepts and digitize designs.
I really like the creative direction of brands like @wofen, @derschutze\_clo, and @vescartes (all on Instagram), and I’m looking for something in that kind of space while still having its own identity.
I mainly need the **designs and finished files** that I can send to my manufacturer. I’m looking for someone I can work with long-term if everything works out.
If interested, DM me with some examples of your work and your rates.

What does real silk look like when it's moving in strong seaside wind?