The Best T-shirt Design Tips for Beginners
For many reasons, custom T-shirts are very popular. Schools, creatives, companies, and many more use them. You only have your imagination when it comes to T-shirt design. Designing a T-shirt can seem overwhelming, especially for those who are just starting. These are our top tips when creating a custom T-shirt.
Explore Different Ideas
Take your time with the design phase, as a good design should be your primary goal. You should take your time and think through the design, colours, text, etc. To test different ideas, make digital mockups or print your designs and hold them up to plain shirts.
Keep It Simple
While great designs can have many details, too many details can overwhelm them. This is why it’s important that you carefully consider each element you want to include in your design and make sure they each serve a purpose in some way.
Select Your Print Placement
There are several available design placements for t-shirt designs. Different types of designs will work best in different placements. The wrong placement can ruin a great design. Placements should be consistent across all T-shirts ordered.
Font Choice and Typography
Be careful when adding words to your design. Also, be aware of the font you choose and the arrangement of the words. These guidelines can help you create a design.
- The text at the top should be the most crucial information and stand out from the rest.
- Avoid large blocks of content that can look overwhelming and hard to read.
- Contrasting fonts can create visual interest, but too many may look unattractive and unreadable.
- When adding line breaks in your text, do it intently to maintain balance.
- Plan out how your text will be placed in relation to other elements, such as images.
- Avoid putting text on top of images with lots of detail. This can make the text more challenging to read.
- Avoid too many drop shadows.
Think About Composition
Every design is made of elements in relation to each other. Design composition is the key to success. While pleasing compositions are subjective, you can use some guidelines to improve your design. Common mistakes include using too many or too few elements. A design needs to be balanced, drawing attention in the right direction. This is why it's essential to consider how your designs will be arranged.
Ensure Image Quality
Low-resolution images can be a problem when designing T-shirts. They can be blurred or pixelated. When the image is fully enlarged, it should display at least 200 dpi. Ideal resolutions for images are 300 dpi or higher.
Research Size Options
Are you open to offering a range of sizes for your shirts? Print your shirts in a variety of sizes. Be sure to choose the right size for the design, as a design might look different on different sizes of shirts.
Make sure you do everything right when designing your t-shirts, and use the best company to print them. Minuteman Press Germiston is available to help you; contact us today!