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 Ingredients of a Great Looking T-Shirt Design

July 11th, 2011

One of the services we provide as a t-shirt screen printer and promotional products supplier is image design services. Clients and prospects ask for quotes but they also want to see their design; sometimes even before they buy.

This is a challenge but it is also one of the most satisfying aspects of our work. There is nothing more rewarding than to show a customer their finished screen printed t-shirt or other promotional product and see their face light up with joy.

So what are the ingredients that contribute to a design "popping"?

Here are a few ideas...

Fonts. There are literally tens of thousands of font choices today. Some of the categories are script, handwritten, eroded, destroyed, celtic, kids, retro, western, stencil, graffiti, horror, TV & movie fonts just to name a few. A great site for fonts is www.dafont.com. Select a font that compliments the "final look" you have in your mind.

Illustrations and Clip Art.   Every great looking design has some kind of illustration image or non-font element to it. The font itself can be that aspect of the design as well. It could also be simple images like lines or basic shapes, or complex illustrations with depth and color.

Finding the perfect symbol that shouts the message, even more than the words say, is the challenge. This is the artistry.

Color. Colors once thought never to be printed together are today boldly joined with each other. Colors can contrast each other like purple and orange, or be a subtle variation like different shades of blue. Tone on tone designs have recently been popular. I saw a white shirt printed with a white image; something I would have never have suggested, yet it is a combination I remember.

Balance. This aspect takes into account all of the elements as they relate to each other in the final ‘look’. Questions that come to mind are…Is there symmetry? Does it flow? Does it pop?

Location. Finally…location, location, location! Screen printing a t-shirt front and center is no longer the norm. High over the shoulder, way off to the side of the body, wrapped around from front to back, going from chest on to the sleeve, and way down the back to the hemline are all being seen today.

Do you see all the personal preference words I have used? What constitutes balance? What colors look good together? What illustration goes with a certain font? Where on the shirt will look the best? It is all up to the eye of the beholder…sort-of.

What I love today is that anything goes. All the standard design "rules" can be combined in new ways to create new looks. But then…this is what artists have been doing since the first creative thinker picked up a rock and scratched an image on a cave wall.