T-Shirt Designs - Some Tips

Designing for a T-Shirt may not be a very easy job, when we are looking out for Great Design Output. Many a times it so happens that after investing a considerable amount of time in designing a T-shirt concept, we find out that it has not come out well or it has some thing lacking to make it a Great Design. To, avoid such self-satisfaction related issues, a designer may follow the listed items to derive a Great Looking Design. 

• Rough Sketching
• Color Selection
• Selection of Images or Cliparts [Vector Vs Raster]
• Fonts Selection
• Spacing Selections

Realtime examples have been given from my designer porfolio, you can find URL linkages after here and there in the article.

Rough Sketching:

Many of the designers do this part mentally. However, if it's been done on a paper or digital canvas, this will give the designer an pre-look on how the design is going to come out.

Color Selection:

Color selection is of two types one is the T-Shirt color selection, which is Background color and the other one is about the colors that will be used inside the design. A designer has to be very careful in choosing the background color as well as the suitable design colors to give more aesthetic value to the design.

Color Selection Example: http://www.myntra.com/Signal-Recession/T-Shirt/FC/PD/1240598318

Selection of Images or Cliparts:

High resolution images should be selected for usage. Never take a low-res image and then scale it to make it bigger, as it will get pixelated due to which the design will look bad on screen and very bad on print.

Vector Images are the preferred one when compared to Raster, the main difference between Vector & Raster is very simple to understand. When a Vector image is scaled to fit a size that we require, it won't loose the detail in it and give good resolution even after scaling it. Whereas a Raster image if scaled will get pixelated, thus giving a bad image quality during print.

Image Seletion Example: http://www.myntra.com/Patience-Preacher/T-Shirt/FC/PD/1204485639

Fonts Selection:

Font selection is a very important aspect in designing. Avoid choosing normal or general fonts that are available all over. Make sure the font that you pick supports your design. For example, if your concept is funny choose a font, which looks funny or childish. Emphasis to fonts with bold, italic etc., should also be used wherever required.

Fonts Design Example: http://www.myntra.com/Love-Order/T-Shirt/FC/PD/1213064279

S p a c i n g Selections:

Spacing between images and fonts, or with lines and characters also play a good role in getting a Great Looking Design. Make sure that before and after spacing is different from others and conveys the matter without abberation. A proper Word/Line break will add more strength to the concept that is getting conveyed.

Spacing Design Example: http://www.myntra.com/Eating-Habit/T-Shirt/FC/PD/1214682291

After completing the design, if some one is around, you can always ask for their suggestion, or else do a review on the next day so that you will have a fresh mind to find out some aesthetic issues in the completed design.