That’s why to break through the noise, you’ll have to create t-shirt designs that tell a story or make a statement people believe in.

1. Find design ideas.

Start by jotting down the key themes, beliefs, and styles you want your brand to be known for. Then, take some time polishing these ideas to come up with more concrete design concepts.

Define your business goal.

Ask yourself whether you’re looking for a one-time success or something that will pay your bills and take you on vacations for years to come.

Now, there’s no good or bad answer here, but being honest with yourself at this very moment can help you make the design search a lot easier.

If you’re looking for ideas that are evergreen, concentrate on topics and themes that don’t go out of fashion or are relevant all year round among your target audience. For example, a t-shirt that says “weekend vibes” or “holy guacamole”.

But if starting an online store is your way of testing the waters of ecommerce, make seasonal themes and trending topics the epicenter of your designs. Is there a popular meme or saying that’s taking the world by the storm? This might be your chance of monetizing the moment.

And in case you’re looking for a little bit of both, mix up your evergreen product offering with designs that support a social movement that’s currently being talked about.

Hijacking random news events can work against you if won’t put much thought to it.

Explore different design elements.

Your t-shirt design can come in multiple shapes and forms.

You can use typography, line drawings, shapes, illustrations, or photographs as your design base. But if you think that using one type of element is too restricting, mix and match different elements to create a one-of-a-kind t-shirt design.

Just remember, even the smallest detail in your design can tell a thousand words, so for the best outcome, stick to clear shapes and forms that are easy to recognize or read both up-close and from a distance.

Choose your color palette strategically.

For most people, including you future customers, visuals matter the most.

That said, every color you use can affect how people see your brand and products.

That’s why you need to think not only about the colors of your design, but also about the colors of the t-shirts your design will be on.

Learning the basics of color theory, or color psychology can come in handy when making such decisions.

But you also have to keep some of the technical aspects in mind. For example, selling white tees with text in black will look sleek, but having the same text in pale pink might make the design difficult to read.

Find the right t-shirt type.

The crew neck, the V neck, and polo are just a few types of t-shirts out there for you choose.

When deciding which t-shirt will make the best canvas for your designs, think about your target audience and envisioned goal for your brand.

It’s simple. Polo shirts probably won’t be the best choice for a store that has an urban feel and targets streetwear shoppers.

Baggy or cropped tees, on the other hand, might be just perfect.

Decide on the print method.

When looking for t-shirt design ideas, you also need to keep printing technique in mind.

Let’s take a look at the 3 most popular printing methods for t-shirts.

Direct-to-garment directly applies the ink onto the product. It’s sort of like printing on paper, except on a t-shirt. DTG printing allows extensive color options in designs and offers great precision in details. However, design placement can sometimes be limiting.

Screen printing involves pushing ink through a woven mesh stencil onto fabric. What’s important to know, is that with screen printing only one color can be applied at a time. So the more colors your design has, the longer it will take to print it, and the more expensive the whole thing will be.

Sublimation printing infuses a layer of ink directly onto the fabric, which means that the t-shirt print area is significantly bigger. This type of printing works best with patterns, photographs (especially landscapes), and abstract designs.

2. Create the designs.

Once you crystallized your ideas, it’s time to create the actual design. There are several ways you can go about it.

Do it yourself

If you have skills and time, take on the challenge of creating t-shirt designs yourself. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your idea come to life right in front of your eyes.

Creating designs doesn’t have to be difficult, you just need to know what tools are out there that can help visualize your idea.

If it’s your first time creating something digitally, it’s fair to say that professional software like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator might not be the best choice not only because of the price, but also because of the learning curve.

Luckily, there are great free alternatives out there that offer basic functions needed to create a print file for your t-shirts. Let’s go over a few open-source vector graphic editors that you can start using today:

• Canva has everything you need to develop your first designs – a simple drag-and-drop editor, access to over 8,000 free templates, folders to organize your designs and the ability to upload your own images.
• Photopea has a bunch of pre-made templates for different projects, this software is a friendly tool for both graphic design beginners and veterans.
• GIMP is a graphics editor that will let you retouch the images you want to use for your t-shirt designs, or add a few free-form drawings to it.
• Inkscape can be used to create or edit vector graphics. While it’s a versatile tool you can use to work with illustrations, lines, or complex paintings, it has a learning curve.

Hire a designer.

Not everyone is blessed with an eye for great designs or have all the necessary skills to create them, and that’s completely fine. If you don’t feel comfortable creating t-shirt designs yourself, hand this task over to a professional.

If you’ve never hired a freelance designer before, don’t worry, you won’t need to move mountains to find one.

Let’s take a look at a few options:

• 99designs. This platform connects freelance designers with clients who are on the lookout for custom designs, let it be logos, business cards, or you guessed it – t-shirt designs. If you have a clear vision of what your t-shirt design should look like, simply browse through the pool of designers to find a person whose style you enjoy. The hit that “Invite to work” button and start your conversation. However, if your idea for design is vague and you’re open to creative interpretations, start a contest that is open to the entire designer community on 99designs. It’s simple: you describe your idea, set the budget and let different designers submit their versions of your design. You get to pick and pay for the one which meets your aesthetic taste and design needs best.
• Dribble. Graphic designers and agencies use Dribble to showcase their portfolios and network with fellow creatives who are on the lookout for new opportunities. To find your designer on Dribble, take time browsing through portfolios until you find someone whose work you enjoy. If that particular designer is open to hire, you’ll see a “Hire me” button on their profile. You can also post a job ad on Dribble if you had no luck discovering talent on your own.
• Upwork, Fiverr, Guru. These global freelancing platforms let independent professionals with clients who are looking for help connect and collaborate remotely. In the pool of freelancers, you can also find graphic designers who can help you with your t-shirt design idea realization. Browse these platforms to find the freelancer yourself or post a job inviting anyone who’s interested send you their proposal.

Use your printer’s product generators

Most printers out there have product generators that let you create designs in one go.

So, if you don’t want to worry about finding the right design software and getting your print file quality and size just right, this might be the right choice for you.

This free tool will let you create designs with custom-drawn smileys, shapes, and fonts, and showcase them on the actual product.

The sky (and the maximum print area) is your limit, so don’t hold yourself back.

Since you’re the one doing all the printing, you can guarantee the quality of your products.

Besides, you can customize the packages by adding a personal touch to each order that comes in.