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Design Help
This page will give people with no graphics experience a jump start and some resources to use to begin thinking about their shirt designs. It will also list some things to think about for more experienced designers who wish to create their own graphics.
| Online Resources | ||||
| DaFont.com - Thousands of interesting categorized and previewable fonts | ||||
| Istockphoto.com - Narrow your search to "Illustrations" and enjoy the goodies | ||||
| Fonts | ||||
| There are several styles of fonts to choose from depending on the purpose of the design. When describing designs for our art department, please refer to the guides below to accurately descibe what style of font you would like to use. "Cute" or "Fun" are usually not accurate enough to get the kind of font that will really make your design look like you want. This is just a small sampling of available fonts and there are 1000s of others to choose from. You can also bring in a sample of a font from a magazine or a corporate logo or visit the showroom and browse fonts with our graphics department. Don't forget to check out DaFont.com |
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| Style References | ||||
| You may find these references helpful in describing how you want your design to look. Click to enlarge | ||||
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| Inspiration | ||||
| If you see a design or logo you like, bring it in and we'll see if we can rework it to suit your needs. | ||||
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| Things to consider | ||||
| Designing graphics for shirts presents several challenges but also gives us many opportunities to create interesting effects. Placement: The placement of your design on the shirt is the first thing to consider. Besides the standard front, back or left chest prints, we can print on sleeves, near seams, even on the inside for size tags or pretty much anywhere else on the shirt. The only restrictions are that prints generally should not cross seems or be larger than what we can fit on a screen. Talk to the graphics department about exceptions to these rules. Number of Colors: The number of colors you use will affect the price of your shirts and Mediums can print a maximum of 6 colors on any print. Solid colors are easiest to print but if your design has gradients (fades) or halftones (photos) it is recommended that you contact Mediums' graphics department for suggestions. If you wish to specify exact colors for you design, please use a pantone color guides as a reference. We will match as closely as possible to specified pantone colors and we have a guide in our showroom for you to use. Different Colored Garments: One convenient aspect of screen printing is that we can often print the same design on different colored garments without much trouble. To avoid ink change fees, make sure the colors in your design will work with each color of the garments you want to use. If you want to change the ink colors, it is not a problem but it will usually include a small ink change fee. If you want to print on both light and dark garments, we suggest you consult the Medium's graphics department before finalizing your design. Special Effects Inks: Mediums carries several special effects inks that you may use for your graphics. Metallic, textured or clear ink may be the difference between a shirt destined for a gym locker and the first shirt you look for when the laundry is done. |
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| Compatible Programs and File Types | ||||
| If you want to create you own artwork, it is HIGHLY recommended that you design it in a vector-base program and save you work as a vector file. Acceptable programs are Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Acceptable file types are .AI, .CDR, .EPS and .PDF. Even if you save as these file types, be sure that your work is in vector format and NOT bitmap. Rarely Photoshop files can be used but remember to keep your image at least as big as you would like it to be on the shirt, at 300dpi, and keep each color in a different layer or channel. If you don't understand these requirements, you should visit our showroom and talk to a graphic designer before making your own shirt graphics. | ||||
| Dealing with Fonts | ||||
| If you submit graphics to Mediums that contain fonts, you must do one of two things. You must either convert all text to curves (outlines) or you must include digital font files for all of the fonts used in your graphics. Mediums will not search for unknown fonts and we will not scan our database for matching fonts unless we already know an exact match. Mediums will simply substitute your font with one of our choosing. To ensure that you get the font you want, you must include it with your graphics submission. The Mediums Graphics Department thanks you. | ||||
