How Airtable Saved My Design Portfolio (and My Sanity)
Let me paint you a picture (pun intended!). My creative process used to look like this:
Create on iPad → Leave designs on iPad → Wonder why I wasn’t making any sales.
yep...I didn’t realize I was doing this either! I was making beautiful things and then just…not sharing them. Anywhere. Not on Instagram. Not on Spoonflower. Just letting them marinate in silence. I hope this isn’t your current situation, but if it is read on. Here's how I got my act together and actually started posting my designs.
Flashback to Late 2024...
I was in full creative mode…pumping out designs like I was on a mission.
Think: kid in a candy store meets artist at Michaels. I was grabbing inspiration and digital brushes like nobody’s business, cranking out patterns and feeling so proud. But much like those shiny new art supplies I was obsessed with buying and then immediately shoving into a drawer “for later,” my designs got the same treatment. I’d make them…then forget about them. Not intentionally, of course…but still. They never got their big moment. They just quietly sat in my iPad like digital wallflowers.
Sound familiar?
Enter: Airtable (AKA My Creative Life Saver)
At the time, I had heard about Airtable but had absolutely no idea what it actually did. And because creative = curious, I instantly decided: “I must know everything about this.”
Cue: Coffee-fueled…YouTube rabbit holes…Skillshare deep dives…everything Google.
And just like that—I was in love.
Here’s where it gets sad…in my day job, I’m an analyst and project manage all the time. I live and breathe structure and systems…for someone else’s company. Meanwhile, my own creative business? Flying by the seat of my doodle covered pants (not really, but you know!).
When I realized that I wasn’t applying even 10% of my professional skills to my personal work, it was time for a hard truth pep talk…with myself. There may have been a forehead smack. Or two. But after a short spiral (recovering negative self-talker here!), I turned that guilt into action.
My First Airtable Base (AKA The Beginning of Order)
I set up my first Airtable base for my pattern collection and thought: “This is it. I’m organized. I’ve made it.”
Spoiler: I had not made it.
But the beautiful thing about Airtable? You can evolve it as your process evolves. And that’s exactly what I did. I refined, restructured, and added what I needed as I needed it. Now it’s a living, breathing, flexible system that actually supports me. And yep…I’m still using it. Still loving it.
What Airtable Helped Me Realize
I was creating and not posting.
I mean… SO many designs were just chilling in my iPad, collecting metaphorical dust. No Spoonflower listings. No Instagram posts. Nothing. Airtable helped me see where the gaps were and gave me a way to track progress for each design.I got my mental space back.
Once I had a system, I didn’t have to keep everything in my brain. I could focus on creating when it was time to create…and handle admin stuff when it was time to do that. It gave me clarity and peace of mind, which - let’s be real - is priceless.
Wanna Try It?
One day I’d love to teach a class on Airtable and all its magical potential for creatives, but until then, I’m leaving you with a few of my favorite resources that helped me learn:
YouTube:
Airtable For Beginners in 13 Minutes (for Content Creators) by Mitch Asser
Airtable Tutorial: A-Z Guide [2025] by Productive Dude
Skillshare:
Airtable for Artists: Organize Your Business & Increase Productivity by Shannon McNab
Airtable for Artists: Advanced – Creative Business Organization by Shannon McNab
File Organization for Creatives: Using Dropbox & Airtable by Maja Faber
And if you have questions about my Airtable setup or just want to vent about your own disorganized design chaos, reach out. I love hearing where other artists are in their journey. Not just because I’m a little nosy (okay, very nosy), but because every convo teaches me something new too.
Total creative win-win, right?