Custom shirts have become one of the great ways to express your creativity and take them out wherever you go. Either you’re a graphic artist, typographer, or a poet at heart, a well-designed shirt is sure to make an impression on anyone it meets along the way.
It has also become a business idea for many, and with a variety of methods made available, it’s easy to see why custom shirts are getting way in front of commercial counterparts.
Making your own custom shirts can also be a little tricky, alluding to a number of designs that may have been awesome on a computer screen but missed the mark once it got on print.
To avoid making those simple mistakes, here are some tips to help you make the perfect personalized shirt:
Think of a Concept
Why are you designing a shirt? How will a custom shirt achieve your objectives? These are the questions that you will have to answer when thinking of a concept. If a company wants to commission a customized shirt for their staff, they’ll expect something that expresses professionalism and class.
Figuring out what you’ll want to put on a shirt can be the most difficult part of the process, but it’s also the most important as everything that follows is derived from that core theme.
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Designing Tips
Primarily when printing shirts, you’ll have to consider the method of printing as each may affect the final output of the design, color, and overall tone.
Generally, when thinking about a style, you’ll have to go back to your core concept and ask who are your target audience and what do you want to convey. Typography also plays an important element when you’re playing with messages, brand names, and wordplay.
But the most important thing to consider is the color and how it looks on the fabric. You will have to take a look at hue, contrast, and tint to get the desired response from the viewer. There are two types of colors that you’ll be keeping an eye on, the fabric color and the print color.
Professional printers, according to MeowPrint T-Shirt Printing, should be able to match the color from the concept design to the printed fabric. It can be tricky if you have limited printing options because you’ll have to make sure that the exact color that complements both the fabric and design are printed accurately.
Embroidery
Embroidery has a more personal touch and is classier than other methods of customizing shirts. However, it does have some significant differences from printing. With embroidery, you can’t use gradients, shadows or shadings, distressed texture, and you can only use solid shapes and colors.
Although a lot of designers use their top-rated print design and bring it to embroidery but sometimes, it doesn’t work well if those elements mentioned above are not considered.
Choose a Stitch Type
The type of stitch used will have an impact on how the final output is going to look like. Custom shirt makers commonly use Satin stitch and Tatami fill but will resort to running stitch for very fine details or texts.
The type of stitch will ultimately depend on the graphic of the design and what’s the best course of action to take when embroidering it.
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Flat Embroidery, 3D Puff or Both
Flat embroidery is often used in many apparels, as it can accommodate thin lines or strokes from 0.05 inches up to 0.5 inches. When customizing a shirt using flat embroidery, you’ll be able to create graphic texts and details on logos. This method is usually used in smaller areas.
3D puff uses a foam underneath the stitch to elevate its surface, giving it an embossed design. They’re mostly used in hats, but if you join them with flat embroidery, you’ll have a wide breadth for various uses.
However, embroidery is used when you want a nice finish with bold accents and tight lines, you should avoid it when you’re working with small and intricate designs that are too small to stitch.
Whether you’d like to make your own shirt, print a design, or choose to embroider them, getting the right method to get it as close as you’d want to be is key in a successful custom design.
Shirts are effective marketing tools for your brand or just a way to raise awareness. If you have a great shirt design, you don’t have to talk about it, let your work speak volumes about your message.