| ber of technologies exist today, from inkjet transfers | | | | elements. Your design needs to be able to be read |
| to online designers, which make designing and printing | | | | from around six to eight feet away. Keep your text |
| your own t-shirts easy and affordable. But ease of | | | | relatively simple, or at least have a major few words |
| production doesn’t guarantee a good design. | | | | that are large and easily seen. People don’t |
| The following are three design components to | | | | have the time or inclination to read a paragraph of |
| consider when creating a design for a t-shirt: | | | | text on a shirt. You have about 3 seconds to get |
| Contrast, Size, and Balance. | | | | your message across before the shirt has passed by. |
| Contrast is the difference in *brightness* between | | | | While smaller text can be used, remember to save it |
| colors. You want to have contrast between your ink | | | | for information that is less important than your main |
| colors and your shirt. For example, bright yellow, a | | | | idea since it will be less easily seen. |
| perfectly good color, is not good for text on a white | | | | Balance refers to the overall distribution of text and |
| shirt because white and yellow are similar in | | | | images on your shirt. A layout is described as being |
| brightness. It’s very difficult to read yellow | | | | “heavy” where there is a lot of |
| letters on a white background. Dark colored inks, | | | | imagery or thick, full, font styles. As the word implies, |
| likewise, do not show up well on dark colored shirts. | | | | when there is an area that is heavy (or light), there |
| Navy blue ink, for example, won’t show up | | | | needs to be a similar area on the other side. Balance |
| on a black shirt (or a burgundy shirt, or forest green, | | | | can be focused either left/right or top/bottom. As a |
| etc…). | | | | design element, balance is an area where there is the |
| Another area where you need to consider contrast is | | | | most leeway for “breaking the rules”. |
| the graphic itself. A graphic (or multicolored font) that | | | | Many times an off-balance, asymmetric design can be |
| is made up of a group of similar colors, such as dark | | | | very energetic. But for a classic, clean design |
| blue, deep purple, and black, will be hard to | | | | remember to keep your elements balanced. |
| distinguish; the lines and colors will visually blur | | | | If you are conscious of Contrast, Size, and Balance |
| together. Contrast between light and dark colors will | | | | when designing your t-shirt, you will be well on your |
| make your graphics easy to recognize. | | | | way to a result that will be visually pleasing to both |
| Size does matter when it comes to shirt design. | | | | you and your audience. |
| Bigger is usually better for both text and graphic | | | | |