Custom T-Shirt Design – Nailing That Killer Look

What never fails to take so many newbies by surprise is the way in which creating your own t-shirt design is not in fact the cakewalk it appears to be on the surface. You’ve seen a billion and one designs during the past week alone and chances are you’ve decided that you could have done a better job with at least half of them, so really all you need is a blank canvas and a few transfers. However, as soon as you get down to the nitty gritty of the design phase, you’ll probably find yourself drawing one very big blank indeed – that being the one in your mind.

Assuming for example you’re trying to come up with a t-shirt that others may want to buy or at least wear if given for free, it’s about so much more than just what you yourself think looks cool. What’s more, it’s also about creating something that’s both original and unique in order to ensure it is easily recognisable as your work and your work alone. All of this while being memorable and having as widespread appeal as possible, which adds up to a pretty trying task the likes of which takes far more time, thought and effort than most give credit for.

So, if this is your first time at bat and you’re wondering how to get started with your own game-changing t-shirt design, here are a few pointers from the pros:

1 – Go Random

Many, or perhaps even most of the world’s most famous and successful songs were created not by way of calculated planning, but entirely by way of accidental discoveries while their respective writers were jamming. Now, it’s a bit of a different story when it comes to visual design, but the same principle holds water. It’s a case of brainstorming ideas and generally going totally random to see what you heart and hands can come up with when you let your brain run wild. Grab some paper, grab a pen and see what you can come up with without actually thinking about it – you might be surprised what appears in front of you!

2 – Embrace Imperfections

Chances are that along the way you’ll come up with a fair few designs that appear to be almost there, though aren’t 100% as you hope them to be. When this is the case, be sure to run the designs by other people with fresh and unbiased perspectives on the whole thing as it’s often fair to say that imperfections in design works can often end up being their signature accents. Just because it doesn’t look exactly like the vision in your head doesn’t mean it’s not 100% perfect as it is.

3 – Stop Nit-Picking

Something of an extension of the above, it’s a proven fact that the longer you spend staring at any piece of work you come up with, the more faults you’ll find even when there are no faults at all to be found. Even if at first you think it looks great, if you pick it apart too much and for an excessive period of time you will convince yourself that there are problems when there aren’t any. If your gut tells you it’s great in the first instance, chances are this is probably because it is great.

4 – Print Life-Size

There’s really only so much you can tell about a t-shirt design when it’s there on the screen in front of you. It may look great on the screen, but won’t transfer nearly as impressively in real life…or vice versa, for that matter. As such, it’s important to make sure you print out every one of the prospective final designs to the exact size you intend it to be in order to get an idea of how it would or will look when printed on a shirt.

5 – Keep it Simple

Perhaps the most important tip of all when coming up with your own t-shirt design is to keep things as simple as possible. When you think of the world’s most iconic logos and memorable designs, the vast majority are in fact remarkably simple. Creating something that’s striking and memorable isn’t about going OTT with complex details, but instead being clever with something much more simplistic.

6 – Quality Printing

Last but not least, never forget that the quality of the design you come up with will be affected enormously in one direction or the other by the quality of the printing service you use to get the job done. There’s really no sense in investing huge amounts of time and effort in a stellar shirt design only to then print it out yourself using 50p transfer sheets from the local supermarket.