T-Shirts – Carabu Shirts & More

 02. Imagine your design on a T-shirt

 Anyone who's worked in both print and web knows that there's a vast difference between how a design looks on screen and the printed piece. Don't be afraid to mock up your T-shirt design on a photo of a model. Print it out if necessary and place it on an actual tee. Make sure you view your artwork at the actual size before you take it further.

 03. Detail is king, but keep things simple

 T-shirt design: man and woman wearing Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts with Hello Kitty-themed illustrations

 These classic Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts showcase limited colour palettes and strong concepts

 Everyone appreciates great drawing ability and attention to detail. There's nothing better than seeing a really well-executed masterpiece on a tee that you can study for hours.

 But, equally, some of the most classic T-shirt designs are the simplest – and get the message across through their sheer simplicity. Anywhere in the middle and you may struggle to deliver a successful design.

 04. Consider your market

 T-shirt design: male and female T-shirt designs

 This is an important one. Think about who your T-shirt is for. Are you designing for men or women; young or old? At the end of the day, you're designing a product that you want people to wear.

 Like a good brand designer would do, try to put down a written description of the exact person you want to attract to your T-shirt design – who they are, what they like, what other brands they like and go from there.

 A post shared by Brad McGinty (@bradmcginty)(opens in new tab)

 If you're going for a humorous T-shirt design, you want to make sure it doesn't come across as a cheap, low-cost joke shirt. The most successful T-shirts to use humour do so in a subtle, clever way – even in the case of the loudest and most in-your-face designs.

 A lot of humorous tees grow tired quickly, but done correctly and with an original idea, humour can turn heads and raise a smile. Brad McGinty(opens in new tab) tends to strike a good balance in his designs.

 T-shirt design: close up of a skeleton on a T-shirt

 Try choosing complementary colours in your design

 Use the T-shirt colour effectively and try choosing complementary colours. If you're using Adobe Illustrator, turn on Global Colours. This can be an absolute lifesaver and will save you so much time. (You can get Adobe Creative Cloud here(opens in new tab).)

 You can also use Halftones to make the most of the restricted colours you're allowed to use.

 Use Pantone Colours(opens in new tab) for screen-printing – your printer will love you for it. They'll also love you if you outline any text and expand any strokes you may have. There are plenty of good tutorials out there, both for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to take the time to get familiar with the process and you're print will be happy working with you.

Artisticimage.net

 T-shirt design: T-shirt being printed

 It's important to learn about what type of T-shirt you want to print on

 You can have your design finished and properly artworked, but your tee will only ever be as good as your printer. Try a reputable company like White Duck(opens in new tab) in the UK or Hey Monkey(opens in new tab) in the US. You could also give your local screenprinter a call. But it's important to take time to learn about the type of tee you want to print on.

 The weight, sizes, labelling options, cost and so on all affect the end product that you'll produce. This takes a while to learn about, and it will require speaking to various companies, but one stick with one rule: deal with a company that wants to treat your tee as an end retail product and will handle your work with care. Screenprinting is an art.

 T-shirt design: a book called 'Vintage T-shirts'

 To have a good understanding of anything, you need to study and understand its context

 To have a good understanding of anything, you need to study it and understand its context. Tees have emerged from every subculture phenomenon that has ever existed, whether it's music, skateboarding, street art, sport or general pop culture.

 To have a good understanding of anything, you need to study it and understand its context. Tees have emerged from every subculture phenomenon that has ever existed, whether it's music, skateboarding, street art, sport or general pop culture.

 Do some reading, find out about T-shirt history and learn to appreciate it. Even designs that you don't like yourself can provide inspiration and insight into what people like to wear. One good book for reference is Vintage T-shirts(opens in new tab) by Lisa Kidner.

 10. Stay ahead of the game

 It's fine to take inspiration from the latest trends, but to keep one step ahead you want to avoid copying them. Chances are that by the time any given T-shirt's been produced, its designers are already moving onto something else. Keep abreast of what's happening in fashion and elsewhere in pop culture, but try to forge your own path.

 Do you have a great design in mind, but only a vague idea of where it’d look best on a t-shirt?

 If that’s the case, then you’ve come to the right place.

 In this guide, you’ll learn about 7 different t-shirt design placements in detail. You’ll also find out which placements work best for logos, artwork, and text-based designs.

 By the end, you’ll be able to pick the best t-shirt placements for your designs!

 The front of a shirt is a classic—one of the most popular design placements you’ll see out there.

 Why? Wearing a custom-designed t-shirt with the artwork front and center is an excellent way to show off beloved art or rep a band, team, or favorite brand.