The Analog Renaissance, Episode 1: The Wake Up Call 

See the show notes for this Episode here.

Well, hello, my friends. I’m so excited to be in your ear today. This is episode one of a nine-part series called The Analog Renaissance.

Let’s go to April 2025. My team was gathered around a table in a hotel conference room in Atlanta, Georgia. Our pens were out. Our paper was ready. Coffee orders were arriving in bulk.

This is one of the most special times of the entire year because my team of 13 is fully virtual. We’re scattered across the United States, so it’s a rare occasion that we all get together in one room. And when we do, we’re ready to go deep. We love each other. We’re so excited to be there in person.

This particular time, we had a lot to discuss. Specifically, we were there to plan the 2026 re-record of Surface Design Immersion. That’s our eight-week course where I teach creatives how to turn their doodles into patterns they can license for products like greeting cards, gift wrap, wallpaper, curtains, pillows, and the list goes on. It teaches them how to build a full career from their creativity.

Now, I’ve re-recorded this course in its entirety every two years since its first launch in 2018, so this would be the fifth edition. Somewhere in the middle of that, we realized we had to reimagine it all.

We decided it couldn’t just be an update, which is typically what we do. I teach Adobe Illustrator, and the program updates so often that every two years is usually just a refreshed version of the course. But this time, we knew we couldn’t just update it. We needed to reimagine it.

So much has changed since 2018. We’re different. Students are different. Learning behavior is different. The needs are different.

We decided to take it down to the studs.

There was no hesitation from my team because we had all been feeling it. We had been seeing a shift in the design industry and in our creative world. In how people are responding, learning, buying, and creating.

We set out to build the course as if it were our first time ever.

And the question became: if this were our first time, how would we create this course in 2026?

That question led us into deep conversation and research.

We went around the table and asked, “How are you feeling this year? Tell us about your education habits. What’s the last course you took? What did you love? What didn’t you like?”

We started talking about tech and tech overwhelm. And that’s where our curiosity led us.

We discovered that people are spending more time on screens than ever. On average, seven hours a day are spent on devices. Sixty-four percent of the world is now on social media. That’s of the entire world. It’s incredible.

Seventy-five percent of ad dollars are now digital. When you think about the history of advertising, billboards, magazines, print, all the ways people used to get their message heard, now 75% of that is spent digitally.

But here’s the twist.

Fifty percent of adults are actively trying to cut back. Sixty-two percent feel overwhelmed by technology and the time they spend on their devices.

We’re more connected than ever, and somehow more exhausted than ever.

The insight was this: everyone is zigging toward digital.

So the question in that room in Atlanta, Georgia was, what if we zagged?

We started researching, and in every rabbit hole, we learned something new.

Barnes & Noble is opening 60 new stores this year. That’s more than they opened between 2009 and 2019 combined.

Vinyl has hit its 18th consecutive year of growth. I see this in my own life. I bought my kids record players for Christmas last year.

Kodak film demand has doubled in the last five years.

Eighty percent of Americans now garden. That’s a five-year high. Eleven million people now have backyard chickens.

Etsy is reporting a 40% surge in analog-themed shops. Michaels says analog hobby searches are up 136% in just the last six months.

This isn’t just a trend.

This is something happening in our industry and at a deeply human level.

We’re reaching for things we can touch.

That led me to ask, how did we get here?

Here’s the timeline:

In 2020, lockdowns sparked a journaling and letter-writing renaissance.

In 2022, TikTok trends like “stationery addict” and “film is not dead” took off.

In 2023, vinyl sales surpassed CDs, and analog cafés became a thing.

In 2024, Etsy reported major growth.

In 2025, analog escapism was named the top cultural trend.

And in 2026, we see the rise of the “analog bag” movement, keeping a small kit of tactile activities with you so you reach for that instead of your phone.

Here’s what I want you to take from that.

Going analog is a coping mechanism.

When we feel overwhelmed by the world and by high technology, we reach for something tactile.

This is not an anti-digital conversation. We love digital. We love high tech.

This is about balance.

If we’re living in a fast-moving, AI-accelerated world, we also need something grounding.

We bake biscuits. We tend our gardens. We put our hands in the dirt.

We cope by creating.

And I am so here for it.

Pattern is having a moment.

From bold wallpaper to checkered mugs to striped pajamas and floral notebooks, the world is embracing color, texture, and personality again. We are living in the era of pattern drenching, and it is such a joy to see.

If you’ve been noticing it and thinking, “I wonder if I could make patterns,” you absolutely can.

The best way to start is with Adobe Illustrator. It’s where I created my very first repeating pattern over a decade ago, and it’s still the tool I use and teach today. It’s designed for this kind of work and trusted across the industry.

Illustrator makes creating seamless repeating patterns feel intuitive. You can adjust color, scale, and composition without starting over. Everything stays crisp because it’s vector-based.

And when you’re ready to bring your designs to life on real products, Illustrator integrates beautifully with printers, manufacturers, and licensing partners.

So whether you’re creating patterns for your home or building a full creative career, it helps take your ideas from sketch to something real.

The question that changed everything for us was this:

What if the biggest innovation isn’t digital at all?

What if it’s deeply and beautifully human?

There is a growing longing for analog. A need for tactile, tangible experiences.

This realization shifted everything for us as creatives and entrepreneurs.

That’s what this podcast series is all about.

Over the past year, my team and I went all in on this concept. We made eight major moves in our business, and I’m going to share each one with you.

You don’t have to do exactly what we did. But the principles behind these shifts will change how you see your creativity and your business.

Here’s a preview of what’s coming:

1. Going face-to-face in a virtual world

2. Creating physical products that live in people’s daily lives

3. Building something that holds attention far longer than digital content

4. Designing learning that gets people off their screens

5. Sending something to your audience’s doorstep

6. Making completion the product, not consumption

7. Meeting people in their analog life

8. Filming in a completely new way for online education

Each one surprised us. We learned so much, and I can’t wait to share what worked, what didn’t, and what you can take from it.

I’ll be honest with you. This past year was hard.

Most of what I’m about to share is not quick wins. We chose to play the long game.

That meant building things for the first time. Learning the hard way. Trying things that didn’t always work.

It was stretching, and it was beautiful.

The magazine is a long game. The e-commerce store is a long game. The trade show was a massive investment with a long-term return.

And we did all of this during one of the most challenging economic years we’ve faced.

This was not the safe path.

But it was intentional. And it was necessary.

Because we decided that if we want to lead this industry, not just participate in it, we have to do what others aren’t willing to do.

That means showing up in public. Even if it means failing in public.

Over the next eight episodes, I’m taking you behind the scenes of everything.

The wins. The risks. The lessons. The moments that changed everything.

And the one insight that ties it all together.

Back in that hotel conference room in Atlanta, we made a decision.

If analog was truly the opportunity we believed it was, we were going all in.

And we did.

One month later, in one of the most digital, high-stakes environments we could imagine, we showed up in person at the world’s largest licensing trade show.

Our first time.

We arrived with six appointments on the books. We brought rose bushes, clay birds, and yards of patterned fabric. Fully analog.

We stood surrounded by LED screens, polished booths, and brands that had never heard of us.

I’ll tell you that story in the next episode.

My friends, create the beauty you want to see in the world.

There is room for you.