It is not easy to start designing T-Shirts. In fact, it is very difficult and very tedious. From researching a design idea, to picking a company to handle your printing and order fulfillment... it is a bitch.

Researching T-Shirt design ideas and the market, not just your competition, is more valuable than gold to a professional tee designer. It saves a lot of time and grief later down the road if you do your homework to avoid copyright issues and adding to an over saturated market place.

One piece of advice that will help you out on your t-shirt designing journey is to make a full commitment. This stuff is not easy. It is grueling work. There is Researching, Designing, Marketing, Networking, Customer Service, and more that must be done or delegated to someone else.

You will not become a success overnight. You will not make a fortune off your design or designs right away. You will not get instant traffic to your shop unless you have a ton of money to invest into it. If you have a shop at a Print On Demand service purchasing PPC ads is not worth the investment at all (It was around $5 a click last time I checked for T-shirt related keywords). If you are using a POD service, not all are created equal. If you are starting a clothing brand it will require more than your mom and brother sporting your label. And on that note, just because family or friends say the design or brand is good, doesn't mean everyone else will. Family is supposed to be supportive, the t-shirt wearing public however are a different animal all together.

I cannot preach having your own design or brand niche enough. As you can tell on the TeeFetch homepage there are a ton of pop culture mashups out there with just as many designers as their are concepts. I'd highly advise avoiding that niche unless you are on the same level as Zerobriant or Winterartwork. With so many DMCA notices flying around I would just avoid pop culture all together. Be original.

How To Start Designing T-Shirts.

Now for the basics of T-shirt designing. Get a program such as GIMP (it's free) or Adobe Photoshop CC and or Adobe Illustrator. Create your design on a HIGH RESOLUTION of 300 DPI TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND sized according to the Printing Service's guidelines that you are going for. Put your single colored line work on its own layer. Then a new layer for each color that you fill in. All the Red on a single Red layer, all the Blue on a Single Blue Layer and so on. DO NOT MERGE THE LAYERS. Try not to exceed 6 colors total if you are having your designs screen printed. For Direct To Garment printing it doesn't matter how many colors. PNG 24 format works great. Some sites like AI or EPS formats. It doesn't hurt to save your file as each type. Avoid JPG and GIF. And make sure you are designing with a Black tee in mind.

Is the T-Shirt industry over saturated? In a sense, yes. To various degrees and different stages it is over saturated and over crowded. The industry is effing brutal.

Does this T-Shirt industry over saturation mean that you should not enter the highly competitive tee market? No, not at all. The problems lie with the lack of originality and the powerhouses crushing startups...be it manufacturing, distribution, or even retail. They (the powerhouses) do it by blocking, or by taking other people's ideas.

From the designer's perspective, it also comes from everyone having similar ideas or people blatantly ripping off other people's concepts. The same thing can be said about T-shirt Blogging, everyone tries to do what everyone else is already doing. The key is to be different and if possible, protect that difference with everything that you have. But that is a daunting task if there ever was one, if not outright impossible to achieve.

T-shirts may not make you rich, but if you enjoy it by all means keep at it. If it brings some income fantastic. Just be original. If you aren't making any money and that is your primary goal then it is pointless to continue.

How To Compete In the Over Saturated T-Shirt Industry.

To compete and make it in the saturated T-shirt market, look at the trends. Look at them and ADAPT to them. Don't just do what everyone else is doing but produce a variation that goes off in its own tangent and niche market. Avoid the self promotion label/logo tee crap like Old Navy, Abercrombie and Fitch, and American Eagle do. In all honesty no one gives a damn about your name or start-up brand. Why the Hell should they pay to advertise you? Again, BE DIFFERENT. Give people what they want not want you want. You may like your drawing of Deadpool wearing a Superman cape, doesn't mean others will or will not. Go for what you know for sure that people will like enough to buy.

That is my opinion on how to handle the T-shirt Industry being over Saturated.

Why Recycle Tees? You may ask. Because I said so that's why. Just kidding. There are many reasons and ways to recycle or better yet upcycle old tees that are actually beneficial to everyone ever involved with the tees. Generation T is a great book on the subject.

Recycling T-shirts gives them new life so they are not being wasted and filling up our landfills. This makes the effort that goes into the producing shirt worth while. From the Cotton harvester to the designers that put graphics on the tees. Below is a small list to get the ball rolling.

Ways To Upcycle and Recycle Tees.

• Turn Shirts Into Dresses
• Use Tees As Posters
• Make a Shirt Quilt
• Turn Tees Into Pillow Cases
• Tee Shirts Make Great Hand Me Downs
• Make a Slashed Peek-A-Boo Shirt
• Convert The Tee Into A One Shoulder Top
• Make a Pipe Vault Tee Dress
• Make a Tee Dress With a Cinched Waist
• Make a Fringed Necklace From The Tee Shirt
• Make a Skirt From A Shirt
• Turn The Tee Into A Knotted Scarf
• Make a Cut Out Top
• Make a Draped Vest
• Create A Halter Top From a Shirt
• Make a Tee Purse or Bag
• Turn Old ruined Shirts Into Rags
• Makea Tee-Kini Bikini
• Create A Produce Bag From A T-Shirt
• Turn The Tees Into Leggings

So Why Make Tee Designs With Transparent Backgrounds?

TShirt Design Inspiration.

TShirt design inspiration can come from anything. Be it a T.V. show or something that happened to you on your way to work. The thing to do is to write down the idea so that you do not forget it. Then later actually take time to think of the SIMPLEST WAY possible to execute the idea as a design.

If you are stuck in a rut and need tee design ideas or inspiration perhaps making a grid chart can help. Put the subjects that you like as the rows such as TV shows or video games (or both). Then for the columns put some details like the characters and their personalities/powers etc. Go a step further and color code all of the characters based on what color they are or outline then with whatever general shape they are. Now look at the chart. You may see that a mashup of two like colored characters or characters with similar powers would make sense. For example, Pikachu and Wolverine for being Yellow and Black or perhaps Pikachu and Blanka for being electric.

These charts can contain all kinds of information and not necessarily used just for mash ups. Any Subject, Place, Color, etc would be placed in rows and columns. You might end up with a Green bird, a castle, and Pink sky. The point is it can help pull elements together or at least set the thought train down a tangent.

Hopefully you found these tips for Tshirt design inspiration useful. Thank you for taking the time to read this.