When converting a design concept into a properly printed graphic, several potential pitfalls could cause your work to turn out differently than you might expect or hope. 

Let’s look at the origin of these issues, and some tips to avoid running into them altogether.

A Little Bit of Color Theory

First, let’s cover how creating colors works. There are two fundamental models of color – additive and subtractive. 

The additive color model concerns adding different wavelengths of light, starting from black. Think about pointing different colored lights at a wall to mix the colors – this is additive color since you’re adding light together to get the desired color.

Additive color works differently from what many people are used to since the three colors of light needed to get white light are red, green, and blue.

The subtractive color model centers around subtracting different wavelengths of light, starting from white light. Remember, white light contains the entire spectrum of colors – this is why a prism can refract it into a full rainbow. 

By subtracting different colors from white light, you can get a specific color. Think about shining a white light through a red piece of glass – by removing all the other colors, you end up with red light.

How Does This Effect Making a Printed Graphic?

All things that use light to create color operate on the additive color model. That means your computer monitor, your phone, a movie projector; anything that puts out light.

Meanwhile, anything that doesn’t put out light, or incorporates pigment, uses the subtractive color model. Examples include things like a printed graphic t-shirt, text on a page, or a pretty rock. 

Those who work in print and design have to work around this, which can be tricky. Most displays can show a little over 16 million colors, but most printers can only print a few thousand, and the ranges of colors for each don’t necessarily overlap.

So Why Does Your Design Look Weird?

There could be a lot of reasons your design looks off. The colors in your printer don’t match the colors of your screen. Two colors that may be meaningfully distinct in the RGB color space (on your screen) could be identical to one another in the CMYK color space (in print). 

Consider converting an image to black and white – often, two completely different colors will end up the same shade of grey. Colors overlapping, as above, can lead to a print design losing meaningful visual boundaries. 

How Do You Design A Printed Graphic That’s Error-Free? 

1. Change the Color Space in Your Design Program

You can limit the color space you work in for creating your designs and match it to your materials. For instance, if your printer uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (also called ‘key’) ink cartridges – you would change your design program to the CMYK color space.

2. Color Separations

If your target is screen printing (as on t-shirts), you’ll want to look into color separations. Color separations are the complex process of converting a multi-colored design into a sufficiently limited gamut to print efficiently.

A talented designer can take you through this process without losing the feeling of the original.

3. Rework Your Thematic Pallete for Contrast

As mentioned above, colors that have a sharp contrast on the screen may not have that contrast in CMYK. Print off a color card with primary and secondary thematic colors of your design to check their visual contrast.

4. Start Small, Go Big

When in doubt, start your design process with a more limited gamut. You can always adjust to having more colors to work with, but the reverse is often quite a painful process.

5. Black and White

Finally, you should always check how your design will look when converted to either pure black and white or grayscale. This tip goes double for logos, which may need to be embossed (depth doesn’t have a color).

Even traditional graphics should at least get a cursory glance with a grayscale filter. After all – you never know how the emphasis in your design might change when viewed in a different light.

Remember, Simple Does Not Mean Bad

If you find yourself drowning in the minutiae, trying to separate a finely detailed design for your printed graphic into distinctive enough blocks to be recognizable, even though you can only use three colors, remember that you can keep it simple. 

The human visual process loves engaging imagination; turning craters on the moon into faces, and clouds into fantastic creatures. So in this world of ever-increasing complexity, a pocket of minimalism and simplicity can draw the eye. 

Are you looking for help with your logo? Check out our blog for practical advice you can use and try out our logo maker today!

As a business, using promotional giveaways to convert new customers and boost your reputation is a no-brainer. They’re affordable, fun, and create instant interaction with customers.  

T-shirts are a favorite among consumers. However, creating a good design isn’t as easy as it seems. 

That last thing you want to do is produce a shirt that doesn’t get peoples’ attention. That’s why we’re discussing five tips for coming up with great t-shirt design ideas. 

1. Think About Your Target Audience 

Before you start thinking about designs, it’s important to consider your target audience. Your t-shirt will prove more effective if it appeals to people interested in your business. 

For example, if your target audience is young men, a promotional shirt that employs current men’s fashion trends will attract more eyes. Winners of your giveaway are also more likely to wear the shirt. 

If you’re not sure about your target audience, start by creating a customer profile.  This will help you better understand who to focus on. 

2. Consider Your Current Branding 

When it comes to branding and marketing strategies, consistency is critical. Using elements of your current branding in your shirt design is a great way to establish a solid reputation. 

Think about things like your business colors and logos when designing your shirt. Incorporating these will help increase brand recognition and make your shirt memorable. 

Keep in mind that you don’t have to force your brand down peoples’ throats. Subtlety can work to your benefit.  

3. Brainstorm With Your Team 

When you’re coming up with a design, it helps to get many brains involved. Trying to create something on your own may prove difficult and result in a lackluster design. 

Ask several people on your marketing team to submit a few ideas. Then, have a meeting and look at everyone’s concepts together. 

Gauging everyone’s reaction to each design is a great way to narrow down your options. After that, the team can start revising the idea until you’ve created the perfect shirt. 

4. Be Creative With Color

When it comes to clothing, color is the best way to get attention. However, you need to be sure you don’t go overboard. 

Think of the fabric of your t-shirt as the background color. What your printing on it should stand out well and compliment it at the same time.

Avoid creating a t-shirt that’s hard to read. If you want to make a huge impression, companies like Flashion Statement create shirts with LED printing. 

5. Originality is Your Best Friend 

If you want to stand out, you need to be unique. This may seem hard to do if you’ve never designed a t-shirt before. 

It doesn’t hurt to look at your competition and see what they’re doing. Just make sure you don’t mimic their designs.  

Check out old-school t-shirt designs and put a modern spin on a classic design element. Or, be abstract and come up with something people have to think about. 

Make Your T-shirt Design Ideas Turn Heads

A promotional giveaway is only effective if the item you’re featuring is attractive to your audience. Before you start printing your t-shirts, make sure your design pops. 

Use these tips for creating awesome t-shirt design ideas and make your giveaway a success. 

We hope you’ve found this article informative. Feel free to browse our site for additional information on graphic design.

You know that billboards, social media posts, and even promotional products are all great places to include your store’s logo. 

But you want to get a bit more creative than the standard marketing tactics — and strengthen your branding as a result. 

Why not create your own flag for your business? 

Need a bit of help getting started?

Read on to learn the most important things you need to consider when developing your branded flag design. 

Choosing Your Flag’s Shape and Size

Let’s cover the basics of how to design a flag that will command your target market’s attention no matter where you choose to fly it. 

To start, select your flag’s shape and size. 

Would you like a more traditional flag shape, or would you prefer something smaller, like a pennant (triangular) flag?

If you’re including your brand’s logo — especially if that logo is pretty detailed — we strongly suggest you go with a rectangular flag. This is because it offers more space to work with. 

However, if you’re commemorating a special event/sale, or if you’re only including your company’s name, a triangular pennant flag may be your best bet. 

You may even choose to create a string pennant/flag garland that can be hung across a doorway or wall. Each individual, tiny flag can have a singular letter, image, or punctuation mark. 

If you’re planning on placing your flags by the side of the road, you’ll likely need a larger banner flag that can withstand high winds.

Finally, consider if you want the flag to be printed on one side, or on both of them. This largely depends on whether you plan to display the flag flat or if it will be waving in the wind. 

Visual Flag Design Basics

When you’re coming up with flag designs, the most important thing you need to consider is customization. 

We’ve all seen standard flags that simply say things like, “Sale Today,” or “We’re Open.” These basic flag designs might momentarily capture the attention of a consumer, but they’re not unique or interesting enough to make them pull over or wander into your shop. 

In order to make that happen, you have to get creative — while still reinforcing your branding. 

In general, your store’s logo is the best flag design option. It furthers your brand recognition, serves as a guidepost for consumers, and is all your own. Your logo should be the central image of your flag. 

You can opt to include your motto, the name of your store, your hours, or anything else you’d like. Still, be aware that cramming too much onto your flag can be counterproductive. 

Especially since people will see your flag while they’re on the go, we suggest giving them just one image to focus on — your logo. 

Also, think about where you want your logo to be placed on your flag. 

Would you like it right in the middle of the flag, or would it look better in the upper left or right-hand corner? Will you include any text on your flag, or should it exclusively feature your logo? 

If you’re truly struggling with your design, we suggest that you work with a professional flag designer. 

The Impact of Flag Colors 

Whether you opt for a solid-colored background or want to use stripes to involve multiple colors, the shades of your flag design will have a direct psychological impact on the people who see it. 

For example, if you want to advertise a sale or limited time offer, go for reds. If you’re a natural/organic store, choose a light green. If you want to promote a sense of relaxation, rely on blue.

We suggest including no more than three colors (outside of any colors in your logo) for your flag design. You don’t want to visually overwhelm consumers. 

Choose Your Location

Where and how you decide to display your custom flag design is just as important as the way that it looks. 

You can invest in fishing rod holder flag poles to display your flags on the back of your boat. You can have your branded flag framed and use it as a piece of decor inside your shop. You can hang it in your store’s window, outside of your shop, or even put several flags on the interstate or road letting shoppers know where they need to turn to find your store. 

The more creative you can be here, the better. Think beyond the standard flagpole. 

Show models with your flags wrapped around them in your brand’s Instagram photos. Attach your branded flags to your car and go for a drive around your city. Make sure you bring your flag to trade shows to take your booth to the next level. 

You can even include miniature flags as free gifts inside your shipping boxes. 

Ready to Bring Your Flag Design to Life?

Now that you know the most important aspects of good flag design, it’s time to start creating a few options to choose from. 

Remember to create a minimum of three flag mock-ups and let your team — or even your social media followers — vote on their favorite option. 

Still need a little help finalizing your company’s logo design? Use our free online logo maker tool to dream up several potential logos.

Don’t forget to keep checking in with our marketing blog for more tips and tricks on how to make sure your business is cemented in the minds of your target market. 

A great t-shirt design can be used as a ‘free’ walking advertisement for your company. Some of the best t-shirt designs are simple logos on the right colored shirt.

What makes a great t-shirt and how do you design one?

In this article, we will go through our top design tips for how to put a logo on a shirt, so you can avoid a fashion faux pas.

How to Put a Logo on a Shirt: Our Top Design Tips 

Follow our 7 top t-shirt design tips below to help you design a great shirt.

1. Sizing

This is one of the most important factors when you are deciding to put a logo onto a t-shirt.

If the logo is encompassed in a circle or square shape, you really need to choose the size wisely. Always print out different sizes and place them on a sample t-shirt to get a better idea of how the finished product will look.

Also, remember that you may have to scale the image for different sized t-shirts. The same size logo will look very different on an XS vs an XXL.

Consider the different t-shirt shapes too. Women’s t-shirts are shaped at the waist, while men’s and unisex t-shirts are straight up and down. This could affect the placement of the logo.

2. Placement

The print placement could make or break a great t-shirt design. You don’t want your logo to sit around the wearer’s waistline, nor do you want it so close to the sleeve that it can’t be seen.

There are standard placement areas and we can suggest these areas when you have finalized your design.

3. Fonts

If your design includes text, make sure it’s in a readable font and in a large enough size. Enough said.

4. Layout

If you have a complex design with different words, fonts and graphics then make sure your design is laid out correctly. The same text and graphics can look very amateur if they are laid out in a different way.

5. Quality

Any graphics or text you use in the logo should be the highest quality available. Once printed, you should check that the text is legible and the images are clear.

Always use vector file images as they scale to print, and you won’t run into any resolution issues.

6. Colors and Contrast

If you are printing the same design on different colored shirts, ensure that the design is clear on each color or create different designs for different colored shirts.

The colors should contrast each other enough to be readable. Don’t use light yellow on white, or dark grey on black, for example.

7. Borders & Edges

Printing photographs or portraits onto a t-shirt can be a great design on its own. Ensure the borders are correctly edited so just the portrait is printed, and not the surrounding background.

Keep It Simple! 

Now you know how to put a logo on a shirt and incorporate good design practices for the best results.

Remember, if in doubt, keep the design simple.

For more logo design tips, check out the other articles on our blog.