Screen printing clothing is easier than you might think and getting the right t shirt design will make your brand stand out. Before you head to a screen printing shop, think in advance about what kind of design you want and what you want to achieve.

Think About The Weight

We don’t think about the weight of ink, but if you put enough of it on a piece of cloth it will definitely make a difference. If your design has certain areas that are particularly dense, your customers will be able to feel it and it might be uncomfortable to wear. To fix this, make sure that any images in the design are broken up with plenty of space.

Shirt Quality Affects Everything

Just about the biggest mistake that anyone could make when designing screen printing is to think that a screenprint will look equally good on any article of clothing. You get what you pay for, and the cheaper the quality of the clothing you choose, the cheaper the finished product will look. Even an excellent design won’t look very good when it is printed on a poor quality cotton.

Material Type Affects the Look

The type of material you use in your article of clothing will be more or less suited to certain types of design in certain types of screen printing. For example, a heavy plastisol image will look good on the back of a heavy-duty jacket. It will not look good on that gorgeous soft T-shirt.

Get Your Sizing Right

If you tried to use lines at smaller than two points, it will all run together. It’s important to stay at two points, and even higher if you can, in order to get a great final print.

Send High Vis Images

When you send your design to a print shop, don’t make the mistake of sending them some low-resolution picture from the Internet or even from your computer. The higher the resolution of the picture the better quality screen printing you’re going to get. Everything needs to be at least 300 dpi and more is always better in this situation.

Imagine the Design

Don’t just think about how it looks on a piece of paper. You need to try to imagine the design large as life on the back of a jacket or the front of the T-shirt. Things can look very different once you blow them up and stick them on cotton.

Balance Simplicity And Detail

Those little details do a lot for your final quality. People appreciate attention to detail and it can be those details that really separate the men from the boys when it comes to excellent T-shirt design. However, don’t get bogged down in images that are so detailed that you lose the forest for the trees. Classic is usually the simplest and simple messages are the most effective.

Choose Colors Wisely

Everyone loves color but you need to have complementary colors if you want your design to stand out and send the message you’re hoping everyone gets. To find out what colors complement one another you can use a simple color wheel. If you are working in Adobe Illustrator, turn on the global colors feature. Always print out a prototype in full-color so you can look at it and make sure it looks just the way you think it will.

Know Your Market

People are going to buy your product based on a lot of different things. The design on the screen printing is just one of those elements. If there a lot of women in your potential market, make sure you choose women’s style T-shirts which fit their body shape in a much more flattering way than unisex T-shirts. Make sure you choose colors that appeal to the demographic you’re hoping to hit.

Combine Trendy and Classic

If there is a hot trend out there it can be tempting to just hop on the bandwagon and ride it. But trends tend to die, and the longest lasting designs are the ones that combine the classic and the trendy.

Screen printing is a great way to develop your brand identity through branded apparel. Just make sure you do it right.