T-Shirt Design Tips for Creating Stylish T-Shirts

Be it a sudden meetup or a casual, breezy day at the beach, we all randomly pick our favorite tees and roll on. For most of us, t-shirts are the comfiest go-to attire for all occasions. T-shirt obsession has peaked that even many businesses have started encouraging casual workwear culture, making all the t-shirts lovers excited. The emerging new trends have started bringing varieties to t-shirts in material or printing or design. Also, technology and its virtues have offered us the opportunity to come up with our clothes. Yes, that’s right! Now all of us can be designers and come up with unique designs. We can even bring the portrait we have drawn to life by incorporating it as a t-shirt design. That’s how simple it is. So, Check out these T-shirt design tips!

T-Shirts: An Effective Marketing Tool

For the past few years, this custom designing trend has increased remarkably, that marketers have started utilizing its power in advertising. They have begun using t-shirts for promoting their brands. With the demand for t-shirts increasing day by day, so is the custom t-shirts designing business. A report states that the t-shirt printing market will cross the US $10 billion by 2025 worldwide.

T-shirts offer a great feeling when you wear them for your brand. They are one of the effective ways to spread awareness about products or services. Companies these days are coming up with t-shirt designs without any designing knowledge. Unique artwork with your company’s logo can make it stand alone from the rest. It turns the attention of your target audience towards you.

So, t-shirt designing has opened new doors for creative artists. Whether a graphic designer or an illustrator or a typography designer, the idea of curating designs for t-shirts can be hugely appealing. But the process can be pretty daunting if you haven’t got the required experience. To make it easy and fun, we shall discuss some tips for killer designs that would grab anyone’s attention.

T-Shirt Design Tips by Experts

Every business has its objectives and carries on different strategies to achieve those objectives. So if you have planned to come up with a custom t-shirt design for your brand, there can be many reasons behind it. A clear understanding of these reasons will help you out in your design process. Find out why you need a t-shirt:

Brand Value

Like the old proverb says, “ A picture is worth of thousand words” your t-shirt’s design can be an ideal and persuasive sales pitch. By getting the hang of the right design strategy, you can make your brand’s voice reach a broader audience.

Promotion

When it comes to promotion, these custom designs are no less than walking advertisements. It creates an instant buzz and attention to your business if coupled with a powerful image.

Internal bonding

It is an expert opinion that internal marketing helps its employees develop a strong emotional bond with the company. In turn, this increases the sense of commitment they have towards the company and its goals.

Leaves a memory

They are the best ways to remain in the minds of your potential customers when you are not around. Whether you are on the way to meet an investor or a client, your t-shirt with the company’s logo will leave a reminder about your company.

Know your audience

Before coming up with a design, answer these questions about your target audience.

Who would wear your t-shirt?

What are their hobbies and interests?

What kind of social media platforms are they present in?

Are these people passionate enough to invest in your products or services?

Designing a t-shirt for a youngster is going to be different from the one designed for an adult. You have to keep one thing in mind that your custom designed t-shirt is your marketing tool. If your tool is designed according to your target audience, you are putting yourself in a better position to better impact marketing.

Check out this article on 10 Objectives You Can Reach Through Custom T-shirts

Get sorted on the budget, timeline, and quantity

Budget

Every company would have its budget. How much you would want to spend will impact your design. If you want to add more details to the design, it would cost you more. It is wise to think about dollars to find a perfect balance between the creative options and quantity you can produce in the initial stages.

Quantity

The choice of your printing method will be directly proportional to the quantity you want. Few methods would cost you rates per unit, whereas others do it in bulk. But remember, when it comes to quality, quantity shouldn’t matter. All you want is to make people wear your t-shirts for a longer period of time.

Timeline

If you are specially designing a t-shirt for a specific event or a campaign, it is vital to set a timeline so that you can get them printed within the timeframe

Choose a good fabric

When designing your t-shirts, it is imperative to select the right material. For the printers, the cloth is just like what canvases mean to artists. Like how a bad canvas can destroy a beautiful art, the same can happen to t-shirts produced from bad material.

Selecting the perfect color scheme

Color acts as the important design element in communicating your brand’s personality. The tints, hues, and shades of each color can modify the emotional connection, offering the designer a wide range of options to send the right message. Choose the colors which not only go well with your brand’s personality but also match well.

Apart from choosing the right color, it is also essential to take care of how they will look on your t-shirt. Printing colors on t-shirts can be a little tricky as inks work differently on them.

Place the design appropriately

If you are printing a t-shirt for your business, the most effective place is the center of the t-shirt. Use the back of the t-shirt to display an image, logo, or slogan of your brand. You would have sometimes seen the design or text getting hidden when we wear them. This kills not only the purpose but also potrays lousy branding. So, be very careful about where you place your design.

The right typography matters

If you are not satisfied with the templates and want to fire upon your designing, typography is the best way to start with and fun. When you want to choose fonts for your t-shirt, ask yourself these following questions:

Are the users going to read it?

Which font category should you choose?

Should you try familiar fonts or new ones?

What are the latest trends?

What are your competitors doing?

Just like colors, even fonts can communicate a message. Serif fonts will give your designs a more traditional yet formal look while the San-Serif fonts will give a modern look.

Use Subtle humor

If you plan to develop a humorous t-shirt design, make sure that it doesnt come across as some cheap and low cost joke shirt. Even the most successful loud and in-your-face tees have subtle humor in them. Humor done correctly can possibly turn heads.

Know Your Printing Options

Printing plays a significant role in t-shirt-designing. One of the significant problems with the unprofessional t-shirt designer is they are confused about which printing option to choose. Many new techniques have been devolved in recent years, but it’s not the right approach to randomly select a method. Of course, the choice of technique depends on the area you want it to be designed, and the price you are willing to pay.

Some popular printing techniques are:

Direct to Garment or DTG

This is ideal for printing complex designs. When you touch them, it gives a soft touch. The ink used in this process does not create any extra-thick layers on the t-shirt.

Heat Press Printing

If you want to print small quantities, this is the most inexpensive method. This is also ideal for intricate designs but wouldn’t work well with darker fabrics.

Screen Printing

This is the best method to incorporate for printing premium t-shirt designs. It gives an impressive finish and a stunning look. The biggest drawback is that it isn’t ideal for multi-color designs.

Dye Sublimation; This is suitable for polyester fabrics but not cotton fabric. The printing in this method makes the t-shirt more durable. Though you might have to spend a little bit more, it’s all worth the professional look it offers.

Remain ahead of the trend

Finally, look for how many ever inspirations you want to but never copy them as these trends keep changing. By the time you come up with your t-shirts, your competitors would have moved forward towards fresh designs. Find the killer t-shirt color combinations for you.

For an outsider, t-shirt designing may seem like a fun activity to do. But in reality, it’s the right strategic design that has all the effects. It can also be considered as a valuable marketing tool. Whether you want to make it for yourself or your employees or your customers, these custom t-shirts act as a marketing tool to start conversations about the company wherever they go.

For more design ideas and inspirations check out All Time Design Work