Consider each element of your shirt as if you’re designing it for a specialized task. Will your design be appropriate on the street, in a club, on casual Friday at work, or at a brunch with the parents? While a single shirt doesn’t need to be appropriate for all occasions, it should be able to see its owner through multiple kinds of social situations and please the consumer long after the initial purchase. Consider what makes that t-shirt you’ve had for years so special to you. Is it the design? Is it the message? Look for the little details that delight, and consider how you can apply them in a new way. 2. Do Your Research
Next, consider what your audience wants. Are you noticing that the most popular t-shirts for your target market tend to have a small amount of text on the front pocket, with a larger logo and message on the back of the tee? What are the "must haves" to get your School message across?
3. Design Something You Would Wear
When considering different t-shirt ideas, some new designers try to appeal to a market that doesn’t actually interest them. most likely fail.
“A great t-shirt is really two things done well: One is concept, and the other one is execution,” says Jeff Staple in his Skillshare Original, The Definitive Guide to T-Shirt Design and Manufacturing. Landing on the right concept is all about knowing what message you want to convey. “Have a great story,” Staple suggests. “This all happens in your mind and in a sketchbook. Whether it’s just promoting your brand or something more high-brow, conceptual, or political, have that message baked in your head.” Focus on designing something that you would love to wear or would buy for someone you know. Designing something with a message you believe in will infuse the final product with your passion.
4. Understand Your Usable Space
As you decide how to bring a t-shirt design idea to life, you’ll want to consider all the different options you have for your blank canvas. You can choose to place your designs on a regular short-sleeved t-shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a tank, a sweatshirt, or a hoodie. You can put the design on the back and front, cover the entire shirt with graphics, or have one tiny element on a collar. The options are endless—and you don’t have to be confined to the traditional spaces you’re used to seeing illustrated on a tee. Still, the typical design options include vertical (full-torso) or horizontal (chest-centric) designs, and you’ll want to be careful with the placement of designs in available space. Horizontal designs should not begin above or below the bust line. Vertical designs should place lighter colors towards the bust line, and darker colors below—light colors low on the design might add visual weight to the hip area. Pay attention to the way shapes and colors change the look and fit of your final product and make adjustments moving forward.
5. Consider Color
As you continue to gain experience in design, your understanding of how to use colors together will grow. Work long enough, and your natural color sense will start to feel like a superpower. REFERENCE A COLOR WHEEL!
When you create a t-shirt, color is critically important. The more ink colors you use, the more expensive the shirt will be to produce—that’s why most commercial t-shirts are created with just two or three colors. Whenever possible, start with a shirt in a color that can also be part of the design: To put a tree on a t-shirt, for example, a green fabric will allow you to define the leaves with black ink and play off the green that’s already there.
6. Use Your Words
Many classic t-shirts have no illustrations—they are simply typography. “Type t-shirts are some of the most powerful t-shirts,” Staple says. “They really stand the test of time.” Typography can be very powerful in its simplicity: When you think about t-shirt design ideas featuring words, you must keep the message short and very clear. Someone seeing the shirt should be able to read it at a glance. Your choice of font and colors determine readability. That doesn’t mean you need to settle for a boring typeface. You can manipulate the font however you like, decorating the negative space inside letters like “o” or making a letter “t” into a small illustrated tree.
“Negative space can be your best friend,” says Delorenzo, who often manipulates fonts in this way. “Finding opportunities to use negative space is very important.”
REVISE: Keep Creating!
Most successful t-shirt businesses aren’t built on just one great idea. A designer must work regularly to add new designs and update old ones. There are many ways to keep expanding on your core concepts to create your catalog.
Hey Britt! We have a site we use to sell custom t-shirts and hoodies with the LPCHS logo on the back - Bonfire.com If you would like to create a little competition and have students create a t-shirt design, you can submit designs back us and we can have staff vote for the top 3, which will launch and be available for sale in 2024.
Design can be on front or back - LPCHS logo needs to go on front or back. I've attached for your reference.
Let's say by March 1st? But anytime is fine really , we can always use new ideas : ) Some words for thought to share with students
- La Plata County has a pet overpopulation problem, so the need to spay/neuter is an important message for us - Reduce, Rescue, Rehome - Our 1st step is to reduce the pet population, second step is to rescue pets who are uncared for, third step rehome the pets in our care. - Our Tag Line - Help us, help them, one paw at a time
CONSTRAINTS to be USED: - digital media - watercolor - acrylic - pen