Here’s a quick list for you t-shirt designer-entrepreneurs running low on inspiration:
If you have any more cool art/graphic design websites or own a site and you want to add it for free traffic, feel free to email us tshirtkingus@yahoo.com
Here’s a quick list for you t-shirt designer-entrepreneurs running low on inspiration:
If you have any more cool art/graphic design websites or own a site and you want to add it for free traffic, feel free to email us tshirtkingus@yahoo.com
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Where would a T-shirt printing business be if it didn’t have any customers? Nowhere, is the answer. Without selling your products, you won’t be getting anywhere too soon. So where can you focus your marketing to increase sales?
Following the boom of user generated content, MySpace has developed in to a hot spot of niche business activity. A brief search will provide dozens of T-shirt trading businesses, all seeking to gain the attention of a growing audience.
You can look at this in two ways. Either it’s a saturated market and already exploited, or it’s offering something rewarding and exists for a reason.
EBay, on the other hand, does just that. By creating a store on the world’s number one auction site, you can plunge yourself straight in to a market where you KNOW that customers are visiting with the mind to part with their hard earned cash. Be prepared to face competition – and eBay charges. There is a cost to advertise your products and a commission to eBay when each T-shirt is sold.
You can alternatively build your own commerce store. This provides full creative license to present your product as you wish, but it also involves a greater depth of involvement on the site maintenance side.
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Put T-shirts or polo-shirts in to Google and dozens of suppliers will be returned, but how do you decide who to buy from?
Generally speaking, it’s best to stick to the products from tried and tested manufactures. Companies such as Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and Gildan are all proven distribution outlets and you can view their catalogues online.
You don’t have to take the online route to managing your suppliers. But there’s no doubt that the convenience of being able to order when its convenient for you, day or night, can be very useful.
Make sure that you’re working with an established wholesaler or distributor. There are plenty of web sites that offer cheap T-shirts but the absence of a telephone number, hastily written content and difficult to use web sites often say a great deal about the business behind the web site. You’ll need a service that meets your standards on a regular basis - not a one hit wonder company.
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The heat press is arguably the most important component of any T-shirt printing business. Without a high quality model, you’ll find your final prints lacking colour and/or clarity. It’s very important to gauge both the heat and pressure of your transfers. Picking the right heat press will ensure consistency throughout. So what are your options?
For the absolute beginners and those with space to consider, the Clam Type Press is a great choice. It has a small frame so you won’t find it consuming half of your living room. On the next step up is the Swing Press, which is a modified design. This improves speed and accuracy of printing by allowing easier access to the T-shirt you are printing.
If you’re looking to mass produce, you’d be well advised to invest in a Pneumatic Press. These machines are more expensive but they work more efficiently with precise heat and pressure application. Companies such as Xpres and Target Transfers supply full ranges of heat presses.
Once you have a quality heat press, the next step is to invest in an efficient printer. And now you’re faced with the golden question – ink jet or laser?
Both printer technologies have their pros and cons. Ink jet devices are much cheaper to buy than their laser counterparts. The advantage of ink jet printers is that they produce bright colour with vibrant contrast. The downside is that the ink can be expensive. The texture of the print from an inkjet printer is different to T-shirts that have been commercially printed
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Plastisol – the most common plastisol based print used in garment decoration. Good colour opacity onto dark garments and clear graphic detail with, as the name suggests, a more plasticized texture. This print can be made softer with special additives or heavier by adding extra layers of ink.
Water Based inks – these penetrate the fabric more than the plastisol inks and create a much softer feel. Ideal for printing darker inks onto lighter coloured garments. Also useful for larger area prints where texture is important.
Discharge inks – used to print lighter colours onto dark background fabrics, they work by removing the dye in the garment – this means they leave a much softer texture. They are less graphic in nature than plastisol inks, and exact colours are difficult to control, but especially good for distressed and vintage prints.
Foil – is what you would imagine. A glue is printed onto the fabric and then foils applied for a mirror finish.
Glitter/Shimmer – silver flakes are suspended in a plastisol ink to create this sparkle effect. Usually available in gold or silver but can be mixed to make most colours.
Metallic – similar to glitter, but smaller particles suspended in the ink.
Expanding ink (puff) - an additive to plastisol inks which raises the print off the garment, creating a 3D feel.
Caviar beads – again a glue is printed in the shape of the design, to which small plastic beads are then applied – works well with solid block areas creating an interesting tactile surface.
Four colour process – artwork is created using dots (CMYK) which combine to create the full spectrum of colours needed for photographic prints – this means a large number of colours can be printed using only 4 screens, making the set-up costs viable. The inks are required to blend and are more translucent, meaning a compromise with vibrancy of colour.
Gloss – a clear base laid over plastisol inks to create a shiny finish.
Nylobond – a special ink additive for printing onto technical or waterproof fabrics.
Mirrored silver - Another solvent based ink but you can almost see your face in it.
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As a t-shirt enthusiast and t-shirt line owner I frequently browse the web to see what types of t-shirts are being sold and which styles are potentially popular. I am constantly amazed at the shirts with celebrities, corporate parody logos, and popular phrases from various decades. How do you determine if it is legal to sell a particular design on a t-shirt? I wish I had an easy answer to that question but will provide a brief summary and point out some resources to continue the very tricky area of t-shirt copyright and trademarks. This is a huge topic and I will cover it over a few articles but I will start out discussing the basics of copyright and trademark. What most people seem to be interested in when deciding what to put on a t-shirt is “What designs can’t be copyrighted”.
The U.S. Copyright Office states that Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions are not subject to copyright protection. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or if it lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright.. Related to t-shirt designs, this includes: 1. Names of products or services 2. Names of businesses, organizations, or groups 3. Names of pseudonyms of individuals (including pen name or stage name) 4. Titles of works 5. Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions. So then what does Copyright protection cover? Copyright protection under the copyright code (title 17, section 102, U.S. Code) extends only to “original works of authorship.â€
So ideas and concepts cannot be protected. HOWEVER, its not quite so simple. We can not forget about our good friend Mr. Trademark. U.S Trademark law states that there are Some brand names, trade names, slogans, and phrases that may have protection relating to unfair competition, or state or federal trademark laws. Federal trademark laws cover trademarks and service marks that identify or distinguish one source of goods or services from another. Trademarks of service marks may include words, phrases, symbols or designs. The Copyright Office and US Patent and Trademark Office are seprate offices and serve different functions.
How do I search for existing trademarks?
You can visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office search page here. From this page click search, then on the next page: “New User Form Search (Basic)” and enter your criteria. Using the search example of I Love New York you will see 36 registered trademarks. Here you can view the details of all 36 records. One of the most famous in these results is for I [Love] NY, an image that is commonly seen t-shirts.
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With the steady increase in consumers buying their fashion gifts online, specifically, t-shirts, I wanted to compile a detailed list on some of the top options for you out there in the 'DIY' field. Here's a list of sites that take care of the sale of your business online as well as print on your product with professional quality on a PRINT ON DEMAND basis. These are becoming ever so popular because it allows the designer to test his/her product or go all out with a ton of designs to jump start your line with no up front cost to set-up. Some of these sites have a social network type platform which allows people to vote/rate and buy your product all in one place. Alot of these types of sites are cool because they have massive amounts of traffic visiting the site already who would be interested in the t-shirt market.
I'd recommend these sites for t-shirt designers who:

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With the steady increase in consumers buying their fashion gifts online, specifically, t-shirts, I wanted to compile a detailed list on some of the top options for you out there in the 'Ready made' field. Here's a list of sites that take care of the sale of your business online as well as print on your product with professional quality. These are becoming popular because it allows the designer to test his/her product. Some of these sites have a social network type platform which allows people to vote and buy your product all in one place. Alot of these types of sites are cool because they have massive amounts of traffic daily who would probably be your target market. I'd recommend these sites for t-shirt designers who just want to start with a few designs and/or if you just want to sell your designs and keep the operation simple. Either way, you still have the opportunity reach tons of people and get your designs in the marketplace.

T-shirt Design from Fire Star Clothing at www.firestarclothing.com [find out how to get your ad here].

T-shirt Design from Fire Star Clothing at www.firestarclothing.com [find out how to get your ad here]
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Getting The Word Out (Marketing!)You can have the best t-shirt design in the world and never sell a single t-shirt if no one knows it exists.
That means in order to get sales, you've got to let people know how to find you. And once they find you, you have to make them want to buy from your store!
The web has the ability to level the marketing playing field in many aspects. A new startup t-shirt line has the same ability to show up in an online search right next to the biggest name brands.
Let the search engines work for you by making sure your store is search engine friendly.
Find targeted content directories like T-ShirtCountdown.com, and T-ShirtLinks.com to list your t-shirt designs on. We also have a list of some of top t-shirt brands on the net. If you think your designs are awesome, then feel free to drop us a reply to the thread in the 'top t-shirt lines' and 'links' sections.
Use targeted online advertising to reach potential buyers in your target market.
Traditional offline methods of promotion can be key as well:
Press releases, offline advertising, and putting your store URL on business cards, stationary, and all company promotion material will help get your store seen.
As we move forward and upgrade the blog, we will touch on all these vital aspects of starting a t-shirt line and making it successful. Bookmark us and visit us often!
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