When done well, a great company shirt boosts sales. They boost morale, create team cohesion, upgrade everyone’s style points and act like a walking billboard.
When done poorly, a company shirt looks silly, stiff, or uncomfortable.
Here’s how to design custom company shirts that fit your brand and skyrocket sales.
Step 1: Know Your Brand
The most difficult part of good design is knowing what you want. But you don’t have to be a design expert, you just have to be your own brand expert.
Where folks have trouble tends to hang up on this point: what is your brand’s image? Yes, that might include a company logo. But it will also include company messaging. Are you the fastest construction company? The most creative restaurant? A super fun tech startup?
Your company shirts will communicate your brand through typography, color, and more. So be sure you know what you want to communicate!
Step 2: Send the Right Message
If you’ve got a great idea of who you are, your brand, then the next step is communicating that message in your design.
This is also the step to explore what you want from your company shirts. Ask yourself these questions:
- Who will wear these shirts? (Executives, management, laborers, customers, etc.)
- What is the purpose of these shirts? (To have a uniform, to gift them, to sell them, etc.)
- How often will you wear these shirts? (Daily, casual Fridays, only to an event, etc.)
- Under what conditions will these shirts be worn? (Heat and humidity, gray, wet days, indoor-only, etc.)
- What is the per-shirt budget?
Your messaging will be different depending on the who, what, and how. If done well, your design fit your brand, as well as the shirts’ usage.
Step 3: Choose the Right Material
Looking at the questions above also gets you thinking about materials. Some materials will hold up better than others (like for a daily use shirt). Some materials will be more professional. For example, custom embroidered shirts are a popular choice for uniforms. Polo shirts, especially, look classy. A polo shirt can also be of a material that holds up to heat and humidity outdoors. So, all of the questions above help you plan your materials.
Other points to consider include:
- Quantities and styles. For example, if you are giving away your shirts as a promotional item, you might want to have women’s and men’s styles and sizing.
- For example, if you are looking to save costs, you might go with a single color.
- Logo and colors. When choosing your material, you will consider your logo color also. For example, a blue logo (the most common logo color) will likely get lost on a blue shirt.
Having an idea of your material needs before you start designing helps you get the most from your custom shirts.
Step 4: Work with a Pro
Once you’ve done your preplanning, you’re ready to work with a professional.
Yes, you can order custom design shirts from a website where you never interact with a human. But you can also end up with something poor quality or a t-shirt fail.
If you don’t design shirts for a living, you might want to work with someone who does.
Why work with a design professional for something like company shirts?
Designers are experts in turning your brand image and messaging into design. Ever see bad typography? Maybe the words look like they say something they shouldn’t or the font looks like a horror show when it was intended to seem friendly?
Work with a pro and avoid the horror show.
Step 5: Get a Mock-up
Once you’ve designed your ideal custom shirts, get a mock-up. You want to see an image of your shirt, with the material colors and ink or embroidery colors as true-to-original as possible.
You review your mock-up to ensure it communicates your messaging and meets your needs.
Step 6: Delivery
You’ve approved your design? You’re ready for delivery!
Ideally, you’ve got some good lead time. If not, don’t worry! Talk about timeline upfront with your design professional, and you’ll get those perfect shirts right on time.
We Make Great Company Shirts Easy!
At T-Shirt Labs we are your Tampa Bay, Florida t-shirt experts–and we ship anywhere in the US!
If you want quality custom shirts, on time, with great design, reach out to us.
