T-shirt Printing - Tips and Tricks to get it right!!

Here is an awesome blog post I found on starting your own t-shirt label. Check the link here - Starting your own t-shirt lablel - GoMediaZine

Let me know what you thought.

I'm sure that you feel excited about starting a new career at an exciting company, but perhaps you don't feel too comfortable wearing the required company uniform. This may be enough to dampen your enthusiasm at work and make you dislike going to the office.

Polos and work shirts are the most common uniforms that companies get for their employees. These kinds of clothing don't require too much maintenance. Nothing can be more embarrassing than your supervisor or manager eyeing your frumpy shirt while at work. Polos are not impervious to wrinkles, but it does take great effort to make it really look crinkly. To do so, you might have to go as far as scrunching it up into a ball, sprinkling water over it and then running a steam roller over the whole thing so it will dry wrinkled.

Polos don't need any special care other than regular washing. As long as it is laundered, dried and hung up properly, any employee would look great wearing it. The only thing he or she has to do is to make sure that is properly tucked into his or her trousers, not sloppily hanging loose and covering the waistline. A button-down, stiff dress shirt just isn't the right garment to wear to work if the company doesn't require corporate attires all week. A polo shirt is more relaxed and casual, allowing better freedom of movement for the employees.

Your customers will also feel more attracted to your employees' uniform if they wear solid color polo work shirts. Not only does such a uniform give off the right vibes, it also projects an exciting aura to your workplace. Your employees look professional without necessarily coming across as boring and business-like. Solid color shirts may also be a way for you to color-code the kind of tasks that your employees perform. For example, a blue shirt means that the fellow wearing it belongs to the maintenance department, while a yellow-shirted women is from the HR. All your customers have to do is to look for the right color shirt and they can get the appropriate assistance they need.

I suggest that retail businesses should require their employees to work in a simple one color polo shirt to express the employees' professionalism and competence. The managers can also opt to add nametags to the whole ensemble, giving a personal touch an otherwise drab environment. The employees can also wear dress slacks or khakis instead of the more informal denim jeans so that they will look more salesman-like. To top it all off, have them wear comfortable and clean shoes to work. Your employees will definitely enjoy working in their professional but not too prim outfits.

There are, however, some businesses where an even more fun outfit is better, like a restaurant. Your employees can wear not just name tags but also tasteful additions to their work shirts, like a funny headgear, pins and broaches or colourful buttons. You can also try having them wear a baseball cap with which to secure their hair, because the health department wants restaurant workers to keep their hair out of the way when working. Look for a solid color that complements your employees' work shirt so the whole outfit goes well together. Your customers will surely enjoy eating at a place where the staff members are friendly and easygoing.

Instituting a required uniform among your employees in the form of a casual work shirt will do more for creating a professional and unified look when they talk to clients, and your sales floor will be all the more lively and light-spirited.

America is home to many opportunities as well as many small businesses. This one of those countries that made it easy for any person who hast the guts and the money to start up their own enterprise. The odd thing about this is that if you did it, then so can everyone else. You might think: what should I do to make my small business stand out from the crowd?

Well, I suggest that you try using custom screen-printed T-shirts as an advertising campaign and a way to let people know you're a professional. Nothing can be more important than letting people know more about what you offer, and letting them know that you are professional enough to handle the job. I can stretch the concept far enough to say that it is the clothes that make the man in a business situation. If you adopt the right look, you will be able to attract more customers and better employees, perhaps even suppliers who'll come knocking at your door.

Most people are rather naturally shy, so if you project a professional and legitimate look it appeals to their urge to be reassured. They will instantly feel comfortable working with you and trusting you with their needs. The T-shirt printing business also requires the same amount of I-have-it-under-control appearance. Think about these scenarios if you will. In one, your employees show up for work in an assortment of unprofessional-looking outfits. They look like sloppy workers but are actually very good at what they do. In the next scenario, your team arrives wearing a uniform work shirt with your company logo and they exude a sense of professionalism and competence.

If you're an entrepreneur, I'm sure that you would want the latter scenario as an example of how you work and present your business. Not only do you inspire confidence among your customers, you also let them know that you are good enough to do the job properly, completely and on time.
Another reason why custom screen-printed T-shirts can be an advantage for you is that it doubles as an advertising tool. Promotional T-shirts are an excellent way for small businesses to do advertising rather cheaply. Think about your target audience and choose your design accordingly. More often than not, your target consumers are the people in your locality. Give your printed T-shirts to friends and family and see the wonder of advertising work without paying for more than the cost of each individual shirt. Your "promoters" can go around your community advertising your company.

You can also give your customers a T-shirt as a token after you finished with a project with them. They might not necessarily wear the T-shirt every day, but I'm fairly certain that they will still wear it a couple of times. That's enough time for them to advertise your products and services to your potential customers. Imagine one of your neighbors for whom you did a job previously walk your dog in the park. Someone might just come up him or her and inquire about the T-shirt your neighbour was wearing. As luck would have it, the shirt contains all your products and services and that stranger was looking for someone to hire for a particular job. Your neighbour not only served as a walking advertisement, he can also vouch for your company by telling the stranger he just met about the merits of working with you. Now you've accomplished not just T-shirt advertising, but also an instant testimonial from a past client.

I hope this short article has convinced you to try out T-shirt advertising for a change. We can help you come up with unique design ideas to fit every business need. We also offer assistance with a variety of promotional products, and we keep your designs in our archive so ordering reprints is hassle-free. Remember, you want to do both advertising and looking professional in one go, so why not try custom printed T-shirts?

Have you ever started a conversation with a stranger based solely on the t-shirt or hoodie one or both of you are wearing? If you have, you know the value of a great screen printed t-shirt. If you haven't, maybe its time you get a custom t-shirt screen printed! Below are some t-shirt ideas; feel free to come up with your own!

1. Art
So maybe your or your friends' drawings, designs, sculptures or photography have never been in a gallery or a museum, but they still deserve to be seen! Show the world your talent by printing it on a t shirt. Order just one for yourself, your mom or your boyfriend, or print a large run and sell the t-shirts on your website!

2. Bands
Just try and think of a band who doesn't have a t-shirt for their fans to show off. If you do think of a band without a t shirt, tell them they better contact a screen printer and get them a band t-shirt, STAT! If that band is your band, well, what are you waiting for?

3. Business
There is no better way to imprint the name of your small business on people's minds than with a t-shirt! A flashy t shirt print can draw the attention of future customers who might drop into your shop out of mere familiarity from seeing a total stranger or a friend with a cool printed t-shirt bearing your company name.

4. Churches
Get your church message out there with a t-shirt! Whether your church is having an event, or you are just proud to be a member, a screen printed t-shirt is a great way to get your community involved in your church.

5. Community
Everyone loves a free tshirt! Organize an event in your neighborhood and attract people with the prospect of a custom T. Do you ever wish that you knew more about your neighbors than what kind of car they drive and how often they mow their lawn? Throw a block party! Get permission to close off the main street near your house and get everyone out for a bar-b-que, live music and...free neighborhood t-shirts printed for your street! Think about what is special about your locale, and create a cool t-shirt screenprint.

6. Express Yourself
Is there a saying or phrase that you find yourself or a friend repeating over and over and over... Maybe it is time to print it on a t shirt. Save your breath, wear a t shirt.

7. Families
Nothing says family values more than a t-shirt with your last name, a picture of your family tree, or photos of mom, dad and the puppy. Tees printed with an image or words meaningful to your family or friends is a great idea for a holiday or birthday gift!

8. Fundraising
Organize a fundraiser for a local charity, and attract donors with t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers and bumper stickers!

9. Gifts
Give the gift of a custom screen printed t shirt. Nothing says I love you like a t-shirt that says..."I love you!" Or that says, "I love turtles."

10. Schools
Be it a kindergarden, middle school, college or community school, printing t-shirts for your school can help to engage students as learners and participants. Of course, you don't have to limit it to your school name or mascot--every time there is a sporting event, a field day, a fundraiser, a student club event, a graduation and more.

Business promotion and marketing have included promotional t-shirts for a long time now. These shirts are usually given to potential customers, clients and even customers to help them identify with the brand being promoted. The good thing about promotional T-shirts is that you don't need to be a big name to deserve the benefits from using them. Even new business ventures have successfully used promotional T-shirts to let people know more about their product, brand or activity.

Having promotional t shirts for your employees is a good way for them to endorse your brand and company, especially when you are hosting a conference, exhibit or product launch. It is a relatively cheap method to help make your customers feel the solidarity among your employees. Moreover, requiring your employees to wear promotional t-shirt also gives them the opportunity to create a company identity in much the same way that an office uniform does.

Entrepreneurs may think that purchasing customised promotional t-shirt printing
at an online store is costly, but they are mistaken. Making an online tshirt purchase is actually a quick and simple process. The number of online tee shirt shops and the variety of services that they offer will surely help flesh out your idea of a good promotional shirt. Plus, some online stores even allow you to do completely virtual transactions , from the design selection to the final payment.

Using t-shirts for corporate branding purposes can help people be aware of your brand in just a short time. t-shirts can also be important to enhance customer perceptions about your business. Promotional t-shirts are not only relatively inexpensive to purchase and/or print, they also last a very long time. All in all, t-shirts can be a cost-effective marketing option for many businesses.

Just think how many people might see the t-shirt you are wearing today. For a relatively small investment people will see that t-shirt time and time again with your company logo on it. What an awesome branding and promotional exercise.

If you need one or more t-shirts printed, you've come to the right place! PSI wants to align its results to your vision of the perfect screen printed t-shirt for your needs, so let us help you convey your ideas. Please follow the helpful design guide below.

Step 1) Choose a T-Shirt Friendly Design

Your design, be it a photograph, a drawing and/or text, can be as complicated or as simple as you want, but please note that just as humans can only fly with the help of surfboards, hang gliders and airplanes, screenprinted t shirts are created with screen printers, ink, and by humans, not magic. Thus, if you want your design to look great it must be compatible with the technology and materials that PSI Screenprinting use as well as fundamental elements of design and color.

Some points to remember when choosing colors, fonts, and t-shirts:

-A dark t shirt printed with light ink can sometimes cause a screenprint to look translucent. This does not mean it shouldn't be done, but choose your ink and colors wisely. When printing colours onto dark t-shirts a white base of ink is laid down first to print the colours on to. If this isn't done your colours won't show up on the dark t shirt. For example, with a water-based ink, yellow over black can look off-green. With Plastisol, ink it will be very washed out and not vibrant.

-Detailed t shirt designs screen printed on a low contrast background, such as maroon ink on black t-shirt, will not show up as well as, say, black ink on white t shirt...but any colour will go well on white...except white of course.

-PSI Screenprinting use Adobe Illustrator to turn your bitmap designs into vector graphics, which means they will have clean lines and can be resized without losing their resolution. Another thing to keep in mind when designing your tshirt is that the font you choose must be a font that we have installed on our computers. The best way to get around that is to convert your fonts to outlines or curves, depending on which software you are using, yourself before sending it to us. If you are not sure, contact us beforehand and we can easily step you through this.

Step 2) Choose Your T Shirt Sizes
There is nothing more frustrating than that t-shirt of your favorite band...that you can't even squeeze over your head; or, all 16 members of the girls' netball team wearing XL uniforms. Make sure you order a variety of sizes that correspond to the demographic who will be wearing them.

Step 3) Choose Your Quantity
How many t-shirts do you need? Be sure to order enough tshirts the first time around because it will be cheaper for you in the long run. If you are ordering for a big event, a team, or organization, keep in mind that a couple extra t-shirts is better than being one short on game day!

Here is a little info one the basics of screen printing a simple way to do things from home...

A beginner's Introduction to t shirt screen printing

Tired of all the dreary old t-shirts in your wardrobe? Looking to liven up a plain Tee with a priceless design? Or perhaps you have grander plans to develop your own fashion label? In any case, T-shirt printing is a great introduction to garment printing and an easy way to make your very own custom t-shirt designs. Screen printing is cheap, easy, and suitable for kids of all ages; just be prepared to make a bit of a mess in the process! So read on for an introduction to the absolute basics of making your own custom T shirt with screen printing.

Screen printing, also called silk screening or serigraphy, is one of the oldest and most versatile methods of transferring a painted design onto fabric. There are hundreds of methods, material and paint types available to the screen printer, but they all boil down to a simple concept: Paint a design, apply it to a screen -which works like a stamp, and transfer it to fabric. Screen printing's success lies in its scalability; one design can be perfected on one t shirt, and then reproduced thousands of times without it losing quality. In other words: Screen printing is the simplest and cheapest way to apply your designs to finished garments, and T shirts are just about the cheapest and simplest garments you can buy!

We won't cover the process in detail, but let's get an idea for what's required when using a basic method of screen printing to design a custom t shirt.

- First you'll need a design to use for your T shirt printing. This can be taken from your imagination or traced from a favourite picture or logo.

- Now it's time to transfer the design to a sheet of cloth which acts as our 'screen'.

- Next we cover all the parts of the cloth which we don't want to print. This stops ink from transferring to the T shirt.

- Finally the exposed cloth is covered in paint, and placed onto the T shirt. The paint transfers through the cloth and your design is screen printed onto the shirt.
So that's the basics of screen printing your own design to one or many T shirts. If it sounds like fun then go ahead and check out a more advanced screen printing guide!

So you have decided that you want to start a t-shirt business designing and printing tee shirts and selling them.

I have been working with people like yourself for many years and after seeing many of you come and go I have learned what works and what doesn't and why. You see I think a lot of t-shirt businesses fail due to the lack of groundwork before jumping in and spending a bunch on designs, and printing and websites etc. So what groundwork do I recommend to get everything off to a good start and lay a great foundation for a successful t-shirt business?

1. Get stuff down on paper - I believe it is very important to at least brainstorm and write down exactly what you are hoping to achieve. Even better if you can put dates on when you would like to complete a certain step or milestone. The act of setting goals is quite amazing...something in the subconscious really takes over and you will be stoked when you actually complete those goals by the given time just by writing them down on a bit of paper. It also really helps you define exactly what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it. Here are some topics to cover...

- Business name
- Target market/Niche - Whats your angle?
- Business model e.g. Retail, Web etc..
- Marketing plan

Just some suggestions to get you started. Like I said try and set time defined goals in those topics.

2. Do your research - Hopefully you have written down your niche/target market in the step above...now do some research into what others are doing in your niche. Where are they advertising? Where are they selling? What methods of marketing do they use eg sponsorship etc?

3. Set a budget -