Custom Designs In Animal Crossing: New Horizons - QR Codes, Pro Designs, And More Explained

You can add your own creative touch to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons by creating your own patterns and designs to use all over the island. With the Custom Designs application on the NookPhone, you can customize and decorate furniture, clothing, and even the ground with your very own designs.

There are even converters online that will turn your favourite images and photos into downloadable patterns. Any pattern you find online, or previously made, from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and AC: New Horizons can be used.

How To Unlock Pro Designs

While designing patterns for in-game use is not new to the series, New Horizons raises the bar with the use of Pro Designs. These designs are for players who wish to get more in-depth with making their own clothing designs for specific garments in-game.

These Pro Designs can be made for tank tops, short-sleeve shirts, long-sleeve shirts, sweaters, hoodies, coats, a variety of dresses, robes, brimmed caps, knit caps, and brimmed hats.

In order to make your own Pro Designs, you will need to purchase the Pro Design upgrade in the Nook Stop machine. The Pro Design feature costs 800 Nook Miles and can be purchased after the Resident Services building has been constructed.

How to Unlock QR Codes

In order to download your own or other players' designs from New Leaf and Happy Home Designer, you will need to download the Nintendo Switch Online App. This can be installed on either iOS or Android.

Once installed, you will need to log in to your Nintendo Account. After logging in, select the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Game-Specific Service, otherwise called "NookLink." (You will need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to access NookLink.) To scan QR codes, simply select Designs, at which point the QR code scanner should open. Scan and save the designs to be transmitted to your game.

Connect your Nintendo Switch to the NookLink from the Animal Crossing: New Horizons title screen by pressing the Minus button to open up the settings menu. Select NookLink settings and then "Yes, please!". Make sure you are connected to the internet, otherwise it won't be able to connect.

After the game has been paired with the app, your designs can be found in the Custom Designs app underneath the "Pro Designs" tab. You will need to download your designs just one last time; press the Plus button on the Custom Designs screen and select a space for the design to fill. Press R when in the app to switch between Pro and Custom designs.

How To Use Custom Designs

In order to use these custom designs you've either made or downloaded, just open the Custom Designs app in your Nook Phone and select the design. At this point you will have four options: wear, display here, display on ground, and erase.

If you want to wear the custom design, just select wear and the design will be placed upon your person as a new clothing item. Pro designs will create the proper garment that it was designed for, while standard custom designs will just be a simple t-shirt.

The "display here" option will create either a mannequin wearing the clothing item or a painting. The painting can be placed on your walls inside your home, while the mannequin can be picked up and then, by selecting the new clothing item in your inventory, you can display it on the walls like any other apparel.

"Display on ground" is generally used by players designing their own paths, wallpaper, or flooring. When outside, the "display on ground" option will lay the design down in a single space, and you can remove the design by pressing Y when facing it. When inside your home, the option will change to "spread in room," with the option to use the design as a wallpaper or flooring.

You can also use custom designs with the Island Designer app to make paths more easily and efficiently. See our Island Designer terraforming guide for more details.

How To Use The Kiosk

Custom designs can be browsed in the game itself without the use of the NookLink application or QR codes. Once you have unlocked the Able Sisters clothing shop, you will have access to a kiosk that will allow you to upload your own designs and search through designs other players have uploaded. This requires a paid Nintendo Online subscription to use.

The kiosk allows you to share your creations to every player in the world. Players can find your designs via the Creator ID or Design ID search functions in the kiosk. This allows players to search for designs by friends or people online. These designs include Pro Designs.

Unlocking Bonus Designs From Sable

Once you've unlocked the Able Sisters shop, make sure to speak to Sable every day. Sable is the older sister working on the sewing machine in the left corner. At first, she will ignore you, but over time she will start to be more friendly towards you, eventually sharing stories about the sisters with you. After this point, Sable will start to give you custom designs of her own creation over several days. These designs can be used when customizing certain pieces of furniture.