Designing T-shirts with custom print is one of the most popular and common outlets for creatives. It doesn’t matter if you are a graphic designer, a typographer, or an illustrator, putting your unique designs on shirts can be fun.
But if you are new to this process, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. After all, you cannot just come up with a design, put it on a shirt, and expect it to work like magic.
If you are planning to design shirts with custom prints that you can sell online to earn extra money on the side, here are several important tips you need to know and remember to ensure your success.
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Use Humor with Extra Care
Do you want to create humorous designs for your T-shirts? Then, you need to make sure that it wouldn’t come across as just another low-cost and cheap joke shirt. The best and most successful shirts that use humor do it cleverly and subtly, even those designs that are the loudest and most obvious.
Unfortunately, many humorous shirts tend to grow tired too fast. However, as long as it is done properly using an original idea, you can be sure that your sense of humor will put a smile on people’s faces and turn heads out on the streets.
Pick the Right Colors
Make sure you also use the T-shirt color more effectively and pick some complementary colors as much as possible. For example, you can turn on Global Colors if you are using Adobe Illustrator. You will find it an absolute lifesaver that will also help you save a lot of time when designing T-shirts with custom print. Halftones can also come in handy to take advantage of the restricted colors you are permitted to use.
Consider Your Target Market
Now, this next tip is very important. See to it that you think about and consider who your custom print T-shirts are for. Do you want to design for male or female customers? Are the shirts for adults or kids? Don’t forget that at the end of the day, you are designing shirts that you want your target customers to wear.
Just like good brand designers, you might want to try putting down a written description of the exact type of person you wish to attract to your shirt designs. These include who these people are, what their preferences may be, and what their favorite brands are, and then go from there.
Details are Good But Simplicity is Better
People always appreciate the great attention to detail and drawing ability. Nothing beats seeing a masterpiece that has been carefully crafted on a shirt you can study for hours on end.
However, some of the most classic shirt designs also happen to be the simplest. They are equally effective in getting the message across thanks to their sheer simplicity. A design that sits anywhere in the middle might fail to become a successful design.
Stay in the Know
To have a better understanding of something, it is important to understand its main context and study it carefully. Modern shirts have now emerged from almost all subculture phenomena that have ever existed, from general pop culture to music, sport, street art, and skateboarding.
See to it that you do some reading to learn about the history of the T-shirts with custom print and learn to appreciate it better. Even those designs that you may not personally like can offer you insight and inspiration into what people prefer to wear.
Imagine Your Designs on a Tee
- Ask anyone who has ever worked in both web and print, and they will surely tell you that there is a thick line of difference between the appearance of a design on the printed piece and the screen alone.
- Don’t hesitate to mock up your shirt design on a model’s photo.
- You can even print this out if needed and put it on an actual shirt.
- Be sure to view your work of art at its actual size before taking things further.
Prepare the Artwork Correctly
Your printer will surely appreciate it if you use Pantone Colors for screen printing. It will also be great if you can expand the strokes and outline the text you might have. You can find a lot of helpful tutorials online, both for Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to help you become more familiar with the whole process. Your printer will definitely love working with you when you do so.
Stay On Top of Your Game
While there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the hottest trends, it would be better to stay a step ahead to ensure that you don’t end up copying others. It is very likely that by the time T-shirts with custom print are produced, their designers are beginning to move to something new already.
Keep up with the latest happenings in the fashion industry and other areas of pop culture. But while doing so, make sure you still try forging a unique path of your own.
Use a Quality Printer
Even if you have the best design finished and art-worked to perfection, your shirts will only be ever as good as the printer you are using. Look for a reliable company, or you can also call your local screen-printer. However, it is also important to take your time to learn about the specific types of tees you wish to print on.
The cost, labeling options, sizes, weight, and others can all impact the final product you will produce. It may take some time to learn about and might also require you to talk to different companies. However, stick with one important rule – be sure to choose a company that treats your shirts as end retail products and will carefully handle your work.
When it comes to designing T-shirts with a custom print, it is important to avoid rushing the design process. Taking your sweet time can go a long way to ensure the success of your designs and future venture!
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