Every t-shirt design is great in its own way, but what really goes into a quality custom design that people want to wear frequently? What about a t-shirt design that stands out from the crowd? Even the simplest of designs leave room for common mistakes. We’re here to help you create the perfect design and give you the best design tips to create the perfect custom shirt!
1. Take Your Time Getting the Placement Right
Ideal print placement differs from print location; what matters is the exact measurement of where to print the design within the location you want. If you’re choosing a unique print placement, make sure you have a good reason! Many people designing for the first time don’t know that a standard full front placement isn’t halfway between the top and bottom, it’s usually closer to the collar. One of the most common mistakes when it comes to placement is the infamous belly print (which is rarely flattering).
When the designs are low, there’s too much empty space. When it’s properly placed, it looks great!
If your print will be a standard location (full front, full back, or left chest), our production team will make sure the placement is also standard, unless otherwise stated, and will work across your various garment types and sizes. For specific requests or any alternative print areas (sleeves, hoods, etc.), just let your sales representative know! They will make sure your request is within the limits and will tell you if it doesn’t look as good in practice as it did in theory.
2. Colors are Fun - in Moderation
Choosing the right colors for your design is one of the most important decisions. Not only for design reasons but if you want screen printing, it helps make sure the job fits your budget! More ink colors means a higher price per garment. Typically, screen printing is best suited for solid colors and has more of a limited color palette. However, if you’re looking to get a picture of space on a t-shirt, digital printing (DTG) is the way to go.
At Underground Printing, you can choose from our wide selection of in-house ink colors available or our color experts can mix colors to match specific pantone colors! Ink colors only matter if you’re doing screen printing, but it is possible to go overboard with the ink colors.
For this design, all black is nice but kind of boring and six colors is too much and becomes hard to see. Depending on the design, one color might be best or six colors could look best.
No matter what print method you choose, the overall look is partly dependent on the colors chosen. It can be tempting to add tons of colors to make the design more vivid or fun, but that can backfire and ruin the look and feel while adding extra costs you don’t need! Using too many colors can start to make your design ugly and it can even make it clash with itself. At the end of the day, there’s always going to be an ideal number of colors for a design. In the case of colors, less is always more.
3. Print Size Always Matters
For some things, size may not matter, but for custom printing it does! One of the most common mistakes made when creating custom apparel is setting the design to standard size. A lot of the time, standard size is close to the maximum which can be way too big for most designs. The size of the design should be based on the purpose of the shirt, garment properties, and design characteristics!
Something to note would be certain shapes. Circles and squares tend to look better when sized smaller than standard. Consider the entire surface area of the print, not just the width and height. Pro tip: if you’re thinking about a print that’s so many inches long, hold a ruler up to yourself or another shirt to see how much area it will cover!
The shirt on the left has a design that is way too large. It doesn’t look as good as the shirt on the right and is way less comfortable with all of the ink on the fabric.
Some other things to consider when it comes to sizing:
One size does not fit all. When ordering multiple shirts in a variety of sizes, consider reducing the print size for the smaller sizes! A 5-inch print on a child’s shirt will look way smaller if you use that same sizing on an adult large!
Certain styles have limited print areas. Set your size to meet style-specific requirements. If you want to print on a front pocket of a hoodie, those pockets have a max height of 10” limiting the size of the overall print.
Always consider comfort. A larger print requires more ink which can affect the garment's breathability and weighs down a t-shirt, especially when the design is on lightweight shirts!
Avoid turning people into billboards. No matter how much the people wearing your shirts support you, no one wants to walk around wearing a shirt that makes them look like a walking ad. Keeping the print size modest makes people more likely to wear it!
4. Play Around with Fonts and Typography
Typography is the visual arrangement of words, not to be confused with the font (style of the text). Anytime text gets printed or displayed, typography is involved! In graphic design, typography is the art of typesetting. Typesetting is arranging type or text in a way that makes sense, along with choosing appropriate fonts, making sure the letter spacing and line spacing is correct, and designing the way the words interact with other graphic elements to make it aesthetically pleasing.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to get typography right, you just need to follow some basic rules. Your font choice says a lot about your design. Fonts can convey a significant amount of information and can convey certain ideas. Fonts can even evoke emotions - even when it’s not intentional. We’re all conditioned to attribute certain characteristics to certain fonts after looking at logos, graphics, ads, and even writing papers! Think about it, you’d use Times New Roman to write an important paper but definitely not Comic Sans.
The shirt on the left is boring while the shirt on the right emphasizes the right words and is more visually appealing.
Font choices are also dependent on what the custom apparel is for. If you’re printing a t-shirt for a family reunion, the “Harley Davidson” font may not be best, unless you’re a family full of bikers in which case, that’s perfect! Certain standard fonts will work well for just about anything, other fonts will only look right in specific contexts. Exploring all of the different font options is well worth the extra time and effort! A great place to start finding your perfect font is DaFont. DaFont is a website full of different fonts whether they be fun or professional!
Here are some other good rules of thumb you can apply to your next design:
The most important words should always stand out.
Avoid huge block lettering, it’s a t-shirt not an entire wall.
Using fonts with contrasting styles adds visual interest - just be careful not to overdo it.
Consider where you put your line breaks; they instruct how your message will be read by others.
Thoughtfully layout how the type interacts with the imagery and other elements.
Avoid putting words directly over busy images - it can make it hard to read.
Effects like textures and drop shadows should be used sparingly, too much can be overwhelming.
5. Take Care with Composition
Composition is the term given to a complete work of art, specifically to the way in which all elements work together to produce an overall effect! Every design has elements that are arranged in relation to each other, which makes up the overall composition. A great design always boils down to its composition. You may think that appealing composition is subjective, and it is, however following a few basic rules can improve a design immensely. If you’re looking for additional composition tips, there are some great rules and tricks from Graphic Mama.
Typical mistakes when it comes to composition include the elements that are either too close together or way too far apart. Sometimes the entire design can be off-balance, drawing the eye to all the wrong places. If you’re especially careless, the words can even be read in the wrong order ruining the whole message!
Don’t be happy, worry!
Bottom line: if you’re working with multiple elements, take your time with the composition. Compare different layouts and ask a friend for their thoughts! Worry now so you can be happy later with your perfect custom design.
6. Send Us the Best Quality Image
One of the most common issues with customer-submitted art files is that the images are “low resolution.” When we say it’s common, we mean this happens at least once a day. Low resolution means there isn’t enough pixel information to give us the quality and small details necessary for the best print! Ideally, images should be 200 dpi or higher at full size. Up to 300 dpi is best! Images saved from the web are usually 72 dpi which is way too small to be printed well.
Another issue with low-resolution images is visible artifacts from compression. A compression artifact is a noticeable distortion of media caused by the application of lossy compression. The print will only be as clear as the image we’re starting with - so if it starts blurry, it will be printed blurry.
The shirt on the left was printed with a low-resolution design, it’s way harder to read than the one on the right that got a high-resolution image!
For best results, we ask for scanned photographs at high resolution or the original image (no resized or re-saved copies). If all you have is low quality, sometimes our art team can fix it! If the image is both low quality and too hard to fix, a great option is to apply a distressed effect so it looks rougher on purpose.
7. Invert Your Negative Images
In custom apparel, the term ‘invert’ refers to switching the colors to make it stand out more. I know, that sounds like a lot of work and really confusing. However, you can simply upload your image and invert it for free online! Inversion is fairly common and in some cases, needs to be done, usually when printing light ink on black garments - to get more contrast!
For the normal person, it’s difficult to know for sure when something needs to be inverted. Look for things that would normally be black or white! This is especially important for line drawings on dark garments with a lot of detail. Often, the empty area should be filled with white rather than the lines being white. When a negative image needs to be switched to a positive image, it often needs a white outline to be added instead.
The image on the left looks fine and subtle but the image on the left pops more because it is completely inverted and inturn, has higher contrast.
If you want an inverted image but don’t want to go through the hassle of doing it yourself, tell your sales rep! Our art department would be happy to help you invert your image for free. Sometimes it's nice to see how both versions would look against a dark garment, we can talk you through that as well! Just let us know what kind of look you’re going for and we can help you work toward your custom design goals.
8. Don’t Forget About Contrast
Contrast is the juxtaposition of difference, used to intensify the properties within the work. Part of color choice, contrast is a specific and important part to consider when creating your design. It’s all about the way different shades of colors correspond to each other! High-contrast designs are easier to read and see while low-contrast designs are subtle. The strongest contrast is always going to be white ink on a black shirt or vice versa. Bright colors on a dark background are always going to be high contrast!
The design itself can dictate the overall contrast depending on which colors have the most surface area and/or are the most dominant. A unique image with saturated colors will increase the contrast against a neutral background. Achieving the highest contrast possible may not always be the goal depending on your design. Many people like the subtle look of a low-contrast print but for some custom designs, it's a necessity. Some of the best designers even play around with low-contrast designs but there is a fine line between that and no-contrast at all.
The design on the left has very low-contrast making it hard to see on a dark shirt, the design on the right has much higher-contrast making it easy to read and the design pops.
Typical mistakes when it comes to contrast are things like navy designs on black shirts, light gray ink on a sport gray garment, and ice gray on white shirts. All of these instances are low contrast and not recommended, simply because you can’t read them that well! If that’s what you’re looking for, that’s totally fine! Just let us know if you’re looking for a low-contrast design so it doesn’t get sent back to you for a correction.
9. Play Around With Borders, Masks, and Edges
This tip is more for digital printing (DTG). Many designs we print through DTG feature photographs! A photo just sitting on a shirt with normal photo edges can look like you did it yourself at home, which if you’re paying for a quality print, why would you want that? There are tons of options for different borders and edges you can play around with. The most simple is a thin white or black border but even that can significantly improve the look of the print. You can also take your design even further and remove the background! Removing the background of an image sounds super hard, but you can do it for free online or our art team can do it for you!
The shirt design on the left is using a fun shape and frame to show off a family at Disney World while the shirt on the right has a design with the background removed.
Another option for improving image prints is adding a frame or thick border. With this option, you can add fancy details and edges, make the edges distressed, and just play with the overall image shape. The best way to decide what to do with your image is to consider what the image is. If it’s for a birthday or anniversary, you may want a special frame but if you’re printing a picture of a pants on a shirt, you might want the background removed.
10. Less is More
The human eye can only process so much information at once no matter what the information is on or referring to. With a custom t-shirt design, that’s even more accurate since most people are on the move. Basically, keep your design on the simpler side!
Sometimes people start to get creative and end up getting carried away, adding unnecessary elements, using weird angles, and just creating something very chaotic. Other times, it’s the nature of the design and number of colors that add to the complexity and chaos. The last thing you want from your new favorite shirt is for the design to make it hard for people to see.
The design on the left is simple but very clean and nice, the design on the right has too many added elements making it look cluttered and harder to read.
The best steps to limit the complexity of your design is to choose one main image or idea and remove anything that tries to take away from it or is not a necessity to your message. If you think your design may be too cluttered but you’re not sure what to remove, our design team can help with that too! We’re used to complex designs and have an eye for unnecessary aspects.
While all of these factors are extremely important when it comes to quality custom designs, some other factors to keep in mind also include the material you print or embroider on. Each material the garment is made of has its own distinct set of pros and cons. Also, some garments use very specific printing techniques which can limit the amount of colors in a design. However, for a normal t-shirt, any printing technique works but depending on your design, one specific method could be best. For example, if you have many colors in your design, digital printing would be better than embroidery or screen printing!
At the end of the day, all that matters is that you love your custom design and want to wear it everywhere. We’re always here to help you achieve your dream design goals and try to make the process as easy as possible! If you need extra help designing your custom shirt, always reach out, that’s why we’re here. Your design is what you make of it, so let’s make sure it’s perfect!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the printing method important in t-shirt design?
Depending on the method of printing, you may need to change your material or modify your design. The three most popular printing methods are screen printing, digital printing, and embroidery.
What are some things to consider with the color scheme when designing your t-shirt?
When it comes to color schemes, making use of cohesive and contrasting colors is a great way to go. If you have difficulty with color theory, referencing other t-shirt designs online or making use of a color scheme generator is valuable. We also have a great art team ready to help with any of your design needs!
Is designing a t-shirt difficult?
T-shirt design is quite simple if you watch the composition and keep it minimalistic. When it comes to the software to design your t-shirt, making use of some of the free design websites can be helpful! Place It is a free website full of templates that can help you with your design. At Underground Printing, we also offer thousands of free design templates to help you start your new design!
Can I design a company t-shirt without a logo?
Corporate merchandise doesn’t need to have your company logo! Instead, it’s easy to make use of brand fonts, colors, and more instead of the actual company logo.