T-Shirts For Generations of Surfers
Custom t-shirts are awesome! Whether you want to make a t-shirt for your family reunion, for marketing, or to show off some of your original art, custom shirts are a great way to express who you are!
A great new style if the Old Bones Rule in the Bone Bags TW T-shirts line.
The most popular companies have focused on e-retail for t-shirt customization. Customers use a computer program to design their shirt and place an order which is then produced at a facility and shipped to their door.
One difficulty some customers have expressed concerns about is creativity block. Most people don’t know how to design t-shirts that grab attention and look professional. It’s one of those things that seems easy until you start the project.
Think about a theme like The Art Department has just developed for their new Bone Bags Thought Wear Line of T-shirts and products.
Know What You Are Making the Design For
Another thing to think about before starting your design is what you are designing the shirt for.
Are you designing something for a family event? Or are you trying to draw more business with promotional t-shirts? Different occasions call for a different approach to designing.
If the goal of printing t-shirts is to drum up business, you want the company’s brand to be clear and interesting enough to grab the attention of others. Make sure you have your company’s target audience in mind when you design the image.
Things meant for personal use don’t need to focus so much on image and professionalism. You can still make it eye-catching, but the design is more about what you like and less about what someone else will want to wear.
Printing Styles
There are three main styles of putting an image on a shirt. Each has its merits and drawbacks.
Print-on-demand is the newest style where inkjet printers place all the colors onto the fabric in one pass. You can get a ton of color options and detail with this method, but it doesn’t work well on dark shirts less than 100% Cotton and it’s not ideal for larger batches.
Screen printing is a tried and true method. Your design breaks down into individual colors and screen patterns made. Then a technician or machine pulls ink across the screens (one color at a time) until the completed image emerges. While this method can be affordable for large batches, it can be costly if there are revisions or if you have many colors in the design.
The most durable option is vinyl printing. It’s great for a couple of shirts with bold designs that will last many washes, but again, many colors in vinyl designs can get expensive.
Decide which images you want on the shirt and how big you want the images in comparison to the text (if there is any). Once you have your key elements on the design, play around with their placement to find something that looks organic and eye-catching.
Hire a Pro to Design and Print what you Need!
Don’t feel bad if t-shirt designing is not in your wheelhouse. Some people find it difficult when they already know how to design t-shirts.
Instead of beating yourself up, try hiring an artist to help design your shirt. Interview several freelance artists and pick someone who understands the style and vibe that you are going for. Be sure you let them know what your budget is and specific details about what you want in the design.
After your artist sends you the finalized design, you can send that file to the printing company for production. Make sure your artist sends you the design file in the right format for your printing company. If the printing company can’t read the file, they can’t print any shirts!
We hope this article has helped give your creativity an inspirational nudge. If you need some help designing a shirt or if you have more questions about custom t-shirts, contact us today!
