Ever wanted to have your own fashion label? Many
people do and you can cut your teeth on custom t-shirts until you’re ready to
start your own label which, as many budding young clothing designers have
discovered, isn’t impossible.
Know your market
Chances are you’re not trying to appeal to too many
people just yet, perhaps just friends and friends of friends as is often the
case, not to mention a good starting point, but even so you
have to know your market otherwise even your friends won’t want to get
around in your designs.
Good design is a lot of the time, a case of trial
and error, usually more of the latter than the former. If you’re an artist and
can draw, freehand draw your designs before printing them and ask friends for
an understanding of what works and what doesn’t in their opinion.
You might have access to cheap t-shirts and
printing services but why waste a t-shirt and ink on something that doesn’t
work?
There are some cool t-shirt design programs you can
use too, some of which like OpenTshirts is open source and free to use, whilst
some like GraffixPro Studio® you’ll need to buy, though depending on how
serious you are, likely to be well worth the money.
Keep your t-shirt designs
simple
Next time you walk down the street, take a look at
the t-shirts people are wearing these days – what do you notice? In general,
they’re opting for simplistic t-shirt designs because simple designs have the
greatest impact and if you’re trying to convey a message with your t-shirt
designs this is what you should be aiming for – t-shirt designs with impact.
That isn’t to say that full-front graphics don’t
work because they can, though you need the skills to deliver.
Create artwork at the actual
size
By creating your artwork at its actual size, i.e. the
size you want it printed, you can avoid having the printer use his/her
judgment and print your designs at a different size than what you had
envisioned.
If you specify the exact size you want the t-shirts
printed at you can avoid this problem, though be sure to take into account
different-sized artwork for different-sized t-shirts.
Convert text to outlines
Any article you read on the subject of t-shirt
design will tell you this – convert the text on your designs to outlines.
There’s a very good reason for this the font you use might
not be supported. To avoid incompatibility problems, convert text to outlines
to be viewed as an image.
Work with a reputable
printer
By working with a reputable printer, one you find
easy to talk to about how you want your t-shirts to look and can make astute
suggestions from experience, you can mitigate, to a great extent, problems like
the two directly abovementioned – the printer printing your designs at a
different size and font incompatibility problems.
Moreover, there’s more involved here, such as using
high-quality inks and the correct technologies and techniques, plus working
with someone you feel comfortable talking to is essential for good
communication and that’s important for producing products of saleable
quality.
What’s more, as you undoubtedly want to make money
from your designs, you’ll need to source a cheap t-shirt
printing service, though bear in mind that cheap shouldn’t mean low budget
but rather cost-effective – there’s a big difference.
You too can design and print
your own t-shirts and there’s no reason why you can’t be successful at it
either.
About Author:
A company that has state-of-the-art equipment and an integrated facility, Mad Dog Promotions is a
reliable provider of quality though cheap t-shirt printing services in
Australia. They do not only screen printing but also digital transfers and dye
sub-prints.
