How to Start Designing T-Shirts
Designing your own T-shirts is easier than ever thanks to the massive growth of the Internet. The Internet can help you format a business plan, find suppliers, design templates, create your own website or open a shop with a pre-existing website. Designing your T-shirts requires a clearly defined concept, a little research and some planning.
Things You'll Need
- T-shirt concept
- Website or account with third-party website
- Marketing plan
Instructions
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Define your concept. If you want to design T-shirts, you need to have a clear idea for your brand. Choose whether your T-shirts will be text-based, image-based or design-based and what style they will represent. Imagine the final product and determine a specific theme that sets you apart from the masses.
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Determine your target market. Think about who you really intend to have buying and wearing your T-shirts. Are they for men or women, or both? What age range does your idea appeal to? If your T-shirts have a young, urban feel, think about in which cities they might be popular. Define your target market beforehand so that you will know where to focus your marketing once you get started.
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Decide between your own website or third-party online shop. You might want to create your own website to sell your T-shirts. However, if you are on a budget, there are many third-party websites that allow you to create a free shop online. These websites normally let you customize and sell products on an extension page of their pre-existing site. There are many T-shirt supplier websites that allow you to customize and order T-shirts in bulk at wholesale prices. There also are websites that allow you to create a line of T-shirts to sell directly on your website without having to order. These sites generally will take care of shipping and handling, and take a portion of sales as a commission.
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Research materials and fabrics. Research the types of fabric and materials that are used by various suppliers and websites. For example, if your target market is middle- to upper-class women in an urban environment, you might want to look for high quality organic cotton or bamboo T-shirts that use silk-screen printing. Most third-party online shop websites have a page that shows you a list of their products, materials and the printing process they use.
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Create a marketing plan and strategy for your T-shirt brand to attract customers. If you have created your own website, use the proper key words and submit your site to search engines. You also can use various social networking platforms to promote your products and offer special deals. Social networking promotion can work for both individual websites and shops created on third-party websites.
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References
- Photo Credit Ron Levine/Digital Vision/Getty Images
