Designing a custom t-shirt online should be a fun experience from start to finish. Depending on the fun reason you want a custom t-shirt there are various different techniques you can employ to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. In this blog, we’re going to look at all the different ways you can influence the design process to make the best custom t-shirts possible.

Whether you’re already experienced in the arena of custom t-shirt design, or you’re a total newcomer to the field; we guarantee you’ll learn some valuable information here that will improve your knowledge of custom t-shirts and the design process surrounding them.

 

A Custom T-Shirt and a Regular T-Shirt: What’s the Difference?

The first and most obvious benefit of a custom t-shirt is the custom part. Being able to design your own messages and logos onto apparel like a t-shirt is a and enjoyable experience. Furthermore, it has unique perks for business use, especially within the realms of marketing and promotion. These days, t-shirt design online has become a lot more accessible to the average consumer. This has opened up a whole new avenue of uses in the custom apparel industry. Due to the success of e-commerce and its astonishing and undeniable growth, small business and entrepreneurial flair within the sector has taken off overnight.

Pre-designed t-shirts still obviously have a strong market. The key difference is the removal of agency and choice from the consumer when it comes to the design or general make-up of the t-shirt. Not everybody has the urge or need to expand creativity into custom garments, therefore one market will always co-exist next to the other. But, you’re reading this because you want to learn about custom t-shirts, and better yet how to design your own t-shirt. So let’s shift focus!

 

Who is Designing Custom T-Shirts Online?

The most logical answer to this question is everybody. We will go into more detail later on about certain markets or why you might feel as if custom t-shirts will work for you specifically, but it’s important to note how broad the market for custom apparel really is. It’s so broad in fact, that the market is set to cross the $10 billion mark by 2025. That’s no mean feat. As previously mentioned, the market has become a lot more accessible to the average consumer contributing to this overall rise. The levels of sophistication in custom t shirt design, ranging from one-off designs made for fun, to long-term investments made on big business plans, means there really is almost a market for everyone.

 

Why Design a Custom T-Shirt?

We’re going to split this section into business and personal, as there are multiple reasons for each and you may only be reading for one subject. Let’s talk about the business aspect of why you might design a custom t-shirt first.

Branding

Perhaps the most obvious in the business arena is branding. Naturally, you build visual awareness through your company by making your business recognisable through branding. This might include having your employees wear a uniform with the company’s branding on it, which would usually include a logo.

Promotional Gifts

What better way to offer value to a customer, or potential customer, by offering them a free gift. Even better if the gift is emblazoned with a company branding or logo that builds awareness and a lasting visual relationship.

Merchandise

In the social media era of memes and viral content, it’s seemingly never been easier to capitalize on what’s hot and make a buck out of it. If there’s a hashtag, there’s probably a market and potentially a custom t-shirt buying one. #BDE, anybody? Alternatively, you could also be a local band looking for an easy way to create awareness as well as an extra revenue stream. Custom t-shirts with your band name/logo will provide both of these things if utilized successfully.

Now let’s talk about personal or non-commercial reasons you might want to design a custom t-shirt.

Gifts for Friends or Family

They say it’s the thought that counts, so what’s more thoughtful than a custom t-shirt? It can be a celebration of a shared private joke, an important date or maybe just something aesthetically cool you though your friend or family member would appreciate. Either way, custom t-shirts make great gifts!

Show Off Your Personality

Have you ever thought of something funny to yourself and figured ‘hey, that’d make a great t-shirt’. Well designing your own custom t-shirt here you can make that a reality! Maybe you’re a small artist with a penchant for design and you want to show off your work in a non-typical way. Why not get your work showcased on a custom t-shirt? The next time somebody asks you where you got your cool t-shirt you could have a potential business opportunity on your hands...

Event Souvenirs

Are you planning a trip away with friends? Maybe your best friend is about to get married and you’re in charge of the event. Custom t-shirts can be an awesome and unique way to celebrate important events and milestones in life. You can print a friend’s nicknames on the t-shirts along with the destination of your trip and you’ll have something to remember the event by forever. How about graduations? Show your support and solidarity in a fun and awesome way. Get a photo of your friend on a shirt and the year they are graduating. You’re sure to make their graduation memorable in more ways than one!

 

Logo Design Online

It goes without saying but we’ll say it anyway. The design of your logo is important. So important in fact that we’re going to dedicate this little section of a blog about custom t-shirts design online to help you figure out how best to design a logo! It’s critical you don’t over design. Some of the best logos around are just text or simple symbols. Think about some of the more iconic brandings in history. The Nike swoosh. The Adidas three stripes. Good logo design and branding isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s just about making simplicity go as far as it can go without cheapening the overall look. These are just small design tips for beginners anyway. Chances are if you are a start-up or looking at a more serious business venture, you will probably want to outsource your graphic design to someone who has a bit more expertise. You can achieve this via cheap hiring found on websites like fiverr, or if you have more of a budget for your business you can hire a professional designer, either agency based or through a freelance website.

 

Different Types of Printing for Custom T-Shirts

There are three main types of printing that you use for designing custom t-shirts, each with their own pluses and drawbacks. We’re going to examine them briefly here so you can decide what’s best for you.

Screen Printing

 

Screen printing is widely seen as the most popular way to achieve printing for custom t-shirt designs. Ideal for bulk printing; your printer makes original screens of your design. This process is seen as reliable by the industry and allows high quality to be achieved in bulk. The drawbacks, however, include the fact a new screen is needed for every color. This means colorful designs can become very costly in the long run.

 

Vinyl Graphics

 

Vinyl printing is a form of heated press/transfer. However, instead of using ink, the more durable material of vinyl is used. This makes the print stand out literally as well as metaphorically, leading to eye-popping designs. The quality is high and extremely durable, however, the more complicated a design is, the more expensive the process. As with screen printing, additional colours end up costing more. In general, the process itself is not ideal for bulk orders.

 

Direct-to-Garment

 

A relatively new kid on the block in terms of t-shirt design, direct-to-garment printing utilizes inkjet printing, and as the name implies, is applied directly to the apparel. The process enables a highly customizable creative process and fine attention to detail. It’s perfect for a small batch, but the larger the order, the less financially viable it becomes. It comes well recommended for high-quality samples.

 

How to Use HoodBeast T Shirt Design Maker

Hopefully, now you have a better idea of how custom designs and custom t-shirt’s work, we’re going to give you a simple primer on how to use HoodBeast.com  for designing your t-shirts online to create the custom apparel you desire. Our easy to use design tool makes the process of customization extremely easy as simple as can be. You don’t have to be a genius to use it, but the next Virgil Abloh had to start somewhere. Jus’ sayin’.

 

Choose Your T-shirt

Are you more of a long sleeve or short sleeve t-shirts? Whatever style you are looking for, Hoodbeast t shirt maker got you covered.pick the t-shirt you want to customize from the home page and get to work almost immediately. If you decide half way through it’s not for you, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and take a look at our other options.

Pick your color

If you’re a straight-forward type of person, this part should be easy. But you should know there is no limit of color for your own custom design, so you don’t lack options. Simply hit the color you want next to the aptly named ‘color’ section, and ta-dah! You’ll be able to see what it looks like with our on screen customizer.

Uploading Images

If you need to upload an image to our tool, you can do so easily. We advise you use either JPEG or PNG file formats for the best results. JPEG’s provide the best image quality, but will leave a white background behind the design, as will other file formats. Don’t worry though, as we will remove this once you have submitted the final piece. Alternatively, if you use a PNG file there will be no white background, and this may enable you to envision what your design will look like a lot better.

Applying Text

 

You can upload your own file with text on, or alternatively, you can use our text manager. We feature a range of fonts and colours to choose from and you can adjust the size accordingly.

 

We hope you’ve found our guide on how to design a custom t-shirt informative and worth reading. Feel free to leave a comment or contact the customer service team for any help. In the mean-time, keep your design’s beast!