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The pros do these things and you should too.
Designing a great shirt on the computer is not enough… it needs to look good when it is printed too. The pros inherently know how to design a really good t-shirt that will print well too. They likely do it on every design and they probably don’t even think about it. These are the 10 habits that great shirt designers have… and you should have them too!
10 T-shirt design habits you should copy from the pros.
- Design to the shirt color
- Choose your ink colors before you start
- Think about text throughout the process
- Don't forget to incorporate the 4 primary design concepts
- Know the capabilities of your print shop
- Focus on building a cohesive design
- Be careful with halftones and blends
- Design for screen printing | Don't go crazy with elaborate design features
- Does it pass the "Squint" test?
- Use quality and interesting focal images.
1) Know the shirt color before you start your design.
As obvious as this concept seems you would not believe the amount of customer supplied artwork that comes into my shop that isn’t printable. Why is indicating the shirt color before you start designing so important? Ultimately, there are a number of really good reasons.
First, the shirt color should be one of the colors in your design. It is a color you don’t need to print or pay for. Yes that includes white and black. (Especially white and black) Designers should be taking advantage of this free color at every opportunity.
Additionally, designing with the wrong color background can create all sorts of unexpected results. This happens all of the time when the artist uses a white background for a design going on a black garment. The best case scenario in this situation is that the design doesn’t look the same when printed. While this is manageable the worst case is entire elements of the design simply don’t show up and final result can be tragic.
Finally, certain color combinations just don’t work together. Unless you have a finely developed sense of color theory it is easier to see how the finished design will look by starting with the correct background color.
2) Set your color palette at the very beginning of the design process.
Delete all of those standard colors in your swatches tab and create your own. Trust me on this one! Your life will be much easier and your printer will appreciate it. Many designers have a swatches palette they have created for themselves and will pull from this palette every time. There are a lot of reasons you should be doing this too.
For starters, it keeps you honest with the number of colors you will use. It is very easy to blow up the budget by adding extra colors. If you set your palette ahead of time you won’t be tempted to use additional colors you may want but don’t really need.
Most design software’s default colors aren’t really created with screen printing in mind. As a result the software’s default swatches can create problems in the prepress process.
Pro Tip | Don’t forget white, black and the shirt color. In screen printing white and black count as colors regardless as to whether you want them to or think they should. Make sure if you intend on using these colors that they are indicated in your swatches palette. Remember to always use your own black and not the default color. Depending on your software and the printers pre-press software, default black may not always output correctly. If you think of black and white the same way you would red and purple you will not have any problems.
3) Think of text as a design element and incorporate it from the beginning.
If you wait until the end to place the text you run the risk of ruining the design with an element that just doesn’t fit. Either the original concept gets muddled or even worse, the text looks like it was just slapped on. Before you start your design give some thought as to how the text and fonts will interact with the focal image and with each other. Finally, leave some space in your illustrations for the text to fit.
4) Remember the 5 primary design concepts.
Contrast
Contrast is what makes the design easy to see and recognize from a distance. Pay attention to the shade of your colors and make sure to keep similar light or dark shades away from each other.
Texture
Texture ads movement and interest to a design. There are a lot of ways to incorporate texture into your t-shirt design. Some techniques are simple and others not so much. Regardless, consider making your design more dynamic by adding some texture.
Depth
Depth is created when you overlap the elements in your design. Let the text and the focal images overlap each other. This creates a more interesting design and helps make the entire concept more cohesive.
Outlines
Outlines add character to your text elements and help build contrast. I love outlines because they help to really clean up a design and make it easier to read and view from a distance.
Negative Space
What you don’t place in your design is as important as what you do. Empty space will make the design easier to see and cleaner. Plus interesting negative space will make the design more dynamic and appealing.
5) Don't design something your printer can't produce.
The newest design software can do some pretty incredible things. However, if you are designing a t-shirt to be screen printed there are a lot of features you probably don’t want to use. Simply put, just because it looks good on the computer doesn’t mean it will print well. There are all sorts of technical reasons why some design features will not print the way it was designed. We can get into those in a different post but suffice it to say, if it looks complicated it probably won’t print the way you think it will. If you wan’t to implement an advanced design techinique it is probably a good idea to check with your printer before you spend too much time on a design you may have to rebuild.
6) Make your design cohesive with elements that match in style and weight.
In short… make the elements look like they belong together. For example if you are using outlines on one element consider using a similar weight of outline on the other elements in the design as well. Additionally, make sure your design isn’t top heavy or off balance unless it is obviously intentional.
Of course you can use creative liberties in your shirt designs. Just make sure they look intentional. If your design has too much nuance the result can be perceived as poor print quality versus an intentional design choice. Customers may not know what the exact reason is but they will notice if something is off about a design. It is the small things that can kill a design. Look for those anomalies and eliminate them before they become a problem.
7) Be very deliberate with your halftones and blends.
Halftones and blends tend to not work the way you think they will. Unless you have a lot of experience with screen printing halftones and blends you should be very careful. While some print shops have the capability and expertise to manage most of the pitfalls that come along with halftones and blends, there are many more that don’t. Ultimately, how well a design prints is primarily on the artist. If you aren’t confident about how your halftones will print it might be better just to stay away from them.
8) Screen printing has inherent limitations. Design with this in mind.
Due to the nature of the process screen printing will have a much lower resolution that other digital and printing processes. Other features such as under-basing light colors on dark garments and wet on wet printing can all create unexpected problems. All of this is manageable if you consider these aspects when you are designing. Ask yourself if this particular element might be problematic in the printing process. If the answer is “maybe” its best to find another solution. Most of the time a design feature is not worth the brain damage it might create later on in the process.
9) Give your design the "Squint" test.
When you think your design might be finished take a minute to look for problem areas. Stand back from the computer and squint your eyes. Remember, t-shirts are intended to be viewed from a distance.
Find the "Weirdness"
In other words, is there anything that just doesn’t “feel” right? If you are sensing something is wrong, I guarantee your customers will sense it too. Figure out what it is and change it!
Does the design still work?
Is the concept still clear and readable or did the design concept get lost?
Is it readable?
Do the elements still work on their own or do they merge together. If the design elements aren’t separated and clean you need to work on your contrast.
Is it appealing to look at?
After all… isn’t this the whole purpose of designing a t-shirt in the first place?
10) Use great focus images.
Ok yes I am a bit biased because I spend most of my days illustrating team mascots and sports images specifically for screen printing. If you will forgive the shameless plug… you can find my clip art images at www.teamlogostyle.com
Nevertheless, it is true that good focus images will make a design really excel. Likewise, if the focus image is weak there is really not a lot you can do to improve the design.
T Shirt Design Tips
Secrets and tips that can help you design stronger better selling t-shirts. Check out my new series of articles on designing better t-shirts.
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