What can’t be added to a custom T shirt design?

If you are here it is because you are interested in ordering custom t shirts or are looking for someone that can help you out with your t shirt design. The answer is that, yes, you have come to the right place.

Custom apparel is a great way of promoting your brand and a marketing strategy very commonly used today. Rather than handing out business cards, by giving out apparel or promo items with a custom design or your brand on it you will have your logo or message shown constantly to the world.

In addition, promotional products and custom shirts are much cheaper advertising options compared to a TV advertisement or billboard on the highway. So, if you have made up your mind (and if you haven’t, we hope you do after reading this post) here is a list of things that you should consider when ordering bulk shirt printing (although the same applies to just one shirt).

Details to consider when ordering custom apparel

There are a few – but important – things to pay attention to when ordering custom t shirts that DO make a difference in the final product and that will make someone want to wear it over and over again (great for your brand awareness) or not.

Even if your design is simple, there are common mistakes that can be avoided to achieve a great design on your shirt. We have listed them here for you:

1. Sizing

The size of the design you want to include in your t shirt will depend on the design itself and also on the properties of the garment where it will be printed on. In the case of squares or circles, they look better on a smaller size rather than a standard size.

One thing you can do to test which is the best size for the design you want to print on your custom apparel is printing it on a piece of paper and holding it up to the item to get an idea of how it will look.

In addition, you should consider different image sizes for the different t shirt sizes you need to print. We gave you an estimate of how many different sizes you will need to order for large events, and if you do not know your own t shirt size, we also gave you a little help with that here. Remember that sometimes, one size does not fit all!

2. Placement

Sometimes you could have a great design but it is placed completely wrong on the garment. One of these mistakes is the belly print, which is not flattering at all. To avoid this from happening, the best is to seek advice from the pros, in this case, us of course.

The Crooked Monkey team will go over with you the specifics of your design and garment and where it will look its best.

3. Fonts and typography

Every text that is printed or displayed has some typography in them and it is also important to think about the fonts you want to use on your t-shirt if you are planning on having writing on it.

A tip for choosing a good font for your shirt is thinking about if it matches your style, the letter spacing is correct or not and if it interacts well with the graphic elements you have included. Sometimes adding several different fonts – correctly – can add visual appeal to the design. However, do not use more than three at once.

If you want to give your shirt a professional or corporate look, perhaps Comic Sans is not the best choice for you. Going for more standard fonts will most likely result in a good t-shirt design.

4. Composition and complexity

Composition is about arranging things in a way that everything looks nice together. However, there are basic rules that if followed can turn a nice design into an amazing design. One of the most common mistakes that is made is that the elements are too spaced out or too close together. Or perhaps the design could be off balanced and you will have people paying attention to the wrong place.

5. Quality

If you are going to do t-shirt printing you need to have a good quality art file. If the image is too low resolution the printed garment will look terrible. If you do not have a high quality file (over 200 dpi and in full size) let us help you create an amazing design that will be high-quality and printing material.

Vector files are the best when it comes to quality because they can be sized and scaled perfectly without any resolution issues. These files are usually PDF, EPS, AI or SVG.

6. Colors and contrast

Colors are very important for making your design a great design and the more colors you want could make your shirt look clownish and it could also cost you more. Contrast is also important because it refers to the degree of visual difference between the darker and lighter parts of an image or how colors correspond to each other. You would want to have a nice design pop out on the shirt, right?

7. Borders and edges

Finally, the borders and edges of the design you want to print. For instance, in the case of a photograph, if you simply just add it there, like a sticker, it will look unprofessional and more like an iron-on. Perhaps it could look better with a border on it or maybe it is possible to knock out the image (which is when you cut the entire background and the focus remains on the subject only).

Masks are also options you can use if you do not like straight edges, you can mask the photo with any shape you like.

What can’t be added on a custom t-shirt?

So we told you some things that should be added or considered on a custom t-shirt but there are also things that can’t be included. Here are some of those from Crooked Monkey:

1. Many colors cannot be added. The maximum amount of colors is typically 6 or 7. At Crooked Monkey we can do a four color process, which creates full color images, for a minimum of 144 garments and it should be light colored. 
2. We cannot print over any seams or across zippers.
3. We don’t airbrush apparel.
4. No photographs (typically) on garments.
5. You will need an underbase to make your print really vibrant.

Are you ready to order your custom t-shirts or do you have any questions about your design? Whichever is your answer but you are still wondering what is the best custom t shirt website, the answer to all those questions is Crooked Monkey, we do custom shirts on Nashville, Philadelphia, Louisville and Washington DC and we deliver anywhere in the US.