Article Fashion

A number of technologies exist today
from inkjet transfers to online designers
which make designing and printing your own t-shirts easy and affordable. But ease of production doesn’t guarantee a good design. The following are three design components to consider when creating a design for a t-shirt: Contrast
Size
and Balance.

Contrast is the difference in *brightness* between colors. You want to have contrast between your ink colors and your shirt. For example
bright yellow
a perfectly good color
is not good for text on a white shirt because white and yellow are similar in brightness. It’s very difficult to read yellow letters on a white background. Dark colored inks
likewise
do not show up well on dark colored shirts. Navy blue ink
for example
won’t show up on a black shirt (or a burgundy shirt
or forest green
etc…).

Another area where you need to consider contrast is the graphic itself. A graphic (or multicolored font) that is made up of a group of similar colors
such as dark blue
deep purple
and black
will be hard to distinguish; the lines and colors will visually blur together. Contrast between light and dark colors will make your graphics easy to recognize.

Size does matter when it comes to shirt design. Bigger is usually better for both text and graphic elements. Your design needs to be able to be read from around six to eight feet away. Keep your text relatively simple
or at least have a major few words that are large and easily seen. People don’t have the time or inclination to read a paragraph of text on a shirt. You have about 3 seconds to get your message across before the shirt has passed by. While smaller text can be used
remember to save it for information that is less important than your main idea since it will be less easily seen.

Balance refers to the overall distribution of text and images on your shirt. A layout is described as being “heavy” where there is a lot of imagery or thick
full
font styles. As the word implies
when there is an area that is heavy (or light)
there needs to be a similar area on the other side. Balance can be focused either left/right or top/bottom. As a design element
balance is an area where there is the most leeway for “breaking the rules”. Many times an off-balance
asymmetric design can be very energetic. But for a classic
clean design remember to keep your elements balanced.

If you are conscious of Contrast
Size
and Balance when designing your t-shirt
you will be well on your way to a result that will be visually pleasing to both you and your audience.