There are a multitude of reasons why you might be considering creating your own T-shirt design. T-shirts are extremely popular and can become a cherished item in anyone’s closet. They also offer a perfect canvas for promoting your business and can help you create a side income.
Whatever your reasons for designing a T-shirt, you’re likely excited to hit the ground running and start sharing your merchandise right away. But before you dive in, we’ve put together an important list of things you need to consider if you want your design to have the right fit and proportions. Here’s how to create a T-shirt design that fits your brand as well as anyone who wears it.
Brainstorm Before You Begin
Before you even start on your design, you should take the time to brainstorm and figure out the purpose behind your T-shirt. It might be that you’re just designing for fun, or you’re interested in promoting your brand or project. Your intended audience should inform your design choices and dictate the general feel of the Tshirt you create. If you’re designing for a business, be sure to know your brand and try to create a design that matches the tone, style and general feel of the company.
Select the T-Shirt Design
t’s very difficult to create a proportional design if you don’t have a clear idea of what type and style of T-shit you are working with. Try to pick a style and fit that will appeal to your demographic of interest. You may choose to create multiple styles of shirts; in which case, make sure to repeat the process below for each individual type to ensure the right proportions.
Select the Right Design and Font
Equally important as getting the right style of T-shirt is choosing an appropriate image and font for your design. You should obviously take full creative reigns and advantage to create something custom and unique; but whatever you decide, it should be legible. It should also translate well onto a garment as well as the human body wearing it. For instance, you need to visualize where various elements of your design will fall on the human body once the T-shirt is on, and how the shape of the design might be affected by the body’s natural shape and curves. In any case, make sure you choose something that speaks to your intended base.
Getting Started on Your Design
It might be tempting to just create a design separately and then throw it onto a Tshirt. But try to keep in mind, even if you come up with the most brilliant design, if you don’t get the proportions and fit right, no one will want to wear it. For that reason, we advise that you incorporate a T-shirt mock-up into your design process as early in the process as possible. Luckily, there are free T-shirt mock-ups readily available for download on the web.
Setting Up Your Mock-Up
To give you a better idea of what your design will look like on an actual T-shirt, download a mock-up image and open it up in Photoshop. You can now group the individual parts of the mock-up file to keep them together. You may then create another group featuring your design elements. This gives you the ability to easily view your design up against the mock-up to ensure that your proportions and fit are correct. You can also easily hide it from view to focus on the design element.
Experiment With Your Proportions
Now that you’ve got a visual of your proportions, it’s time to do some experimenting to see how different proportions could improve or undermine the fit of your Tshirt. You may find that a design looked perfect on screen, but suddenly looks too small or difficult to discern when applied to the mock-up T-shirt. Alternatively, your image may take up too much room and not leave enough negative space on the rest of the garment. It’s ultimately up to you what proportions you choose to go with; but whatever the fit, make certain it’s intentional.
Don’t Be Afraid To Break The Rules
As with any design, there are no clear right or wrong ways or rules to the process. While it’s important to know and consider the standard rules of size and proportion, don’t let that stifle your creative drive. At the end of the process, you should have come up with a design that is uniquely on brand for your business or goal. In some cases, that might mean bending (or breaking) some of the rules and trusting your instinct.
Now that you know the steps, you should have no tro
