So, how does one design a shirt?

In this blog post, I’m getting to give step-by-step instructions on the way to design T-shirts. I'll cover every part of the planning process, including finding inspiration, illustration techniques, digital editing on Photoshop and Illustrator, and T-shirt printing methods like DTG and screen printing.

For those curious about digital editing, I’ll even be linking to Photoshop and Illustrator free trials, also as a couple of tutorials which I hope will prove helpful.

Whether you’re looking to start out a T-shirt business, or simply curious to find out more about illustration and digital editing, this is often for you.

If you’ve not yet verified our graphic tees, click here to look at all our eco T-shirts.

Finding Inspiration

So, let’s start at the very beginning. I find inspiration comes once I least expect it. When I’m lacking ideas I prefer to require a shower, choose a walk, or cook. It really helps overcome those annoying creative blocks.

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Apparently, there’s a scientific reason why daydreaming is so effective when it involves forming new ideas. Shutting down your frontal area (the part of the brain related to creativity) allows your brain to subconsciously process old thoughts and concepts and switch them into new ones (source). Interesting!

Another source of inspiration is that the internet. I prefer to draw animals but unfortunately, I don’t have lions, rhinos, and frogs readily available, so I address Google for reference images. Don’t let anyone tell you that drawing from photographs is cheating—sometimes it’s really helpful! There also are many royalty-free image libraries out there that can help to avoid any copyright issues – my favourite is unplash.com.

Planning Your Design

When it involves creating art, everyone has their own process. Personally, I find it useful to return up with an idea first. Before I start drawing, I mock-up a variety of design concepts during a sketchbook or on Photoshop. I feel much more confident if I’ve experimented with a couple of different compositions before starting on a final piece.

Take a glance at the image below. On the left is my start line – I pasted several images together to ascertain if the image I had in my head would look good on paper. i made a decision it did, so I then did a delineation. Once I had scanned this I then continued to feature thereto on Photoshop (keep reading for more on digital editing). you'll view the ultimate design of a T-shirt here.