How to Sketch a T-Shirt Design

Video Transcript

"GRACE FRAGA: Chantelle is going to teach you how to sketch some designs for your future t-shirt. CHANTELLE TIBBS: Alright. So let's get started. I'm going to tell you a good story 'cause I'm sure a few of you professional folks out there are like, "Okay, this woman's trying to tell me how to design a t-shirt. She's talking a lot about inspiration and all these other, like, hippy stuff here." But... GRACE FRAGA: Yup. CHANTELLE TIBBS: ...let me give you a good sample of something that I designed, that I thought was fantastic and it's one of our number one sellers. The name of the t-shirt is called "Socialists are good kissers." How did I come up with this design idea? Well, for one, I was kissing a socialist. And me and her sat down and we were talking about it, and she was like, "You know what? You're a good kisser." I said, "You know what? You are, too." She was like, "I bet you socialists are good kissers." From that one conversation--granted, I was drinking as well. From that one conversation, I got one of my number one sellers. So, yeah, I know. I'm not talking about any kind of higher power inspiration, although you can go from that, too. It can just be an inside joke between you and a few other people. Designed the right way, it could work. So I know when I say everybody can design a t-shirt, I really mean it. And just to show you what I ended up doing, I placed it on--or I started sketching up a few samples. So I told you I like spirals, so I started off the "S" with a spiral. And in my own handwriting, I just wrote it out like this, and there are a lot of curves to the font. That's--I toyed around with the edge-- GRACE FRAGA: Why do you do a lot of curves? What is it about curves that attract you to it? CHANTELLE TIBBS: Well, I just like the way that it flows and it just looks really good on--it looks really good on the shirt. It's not blocky. I've never been one too much for a blocky font, but if you like a block font, then do a blocky font. GRACE FRAGA: I'm kinda blocky. CHANTELLE TIBBS: Okay--but there you go. So you got it. GRACE FRAGA: So you can design this also on a computer if you had a computer... CHANTELLE TIBBS: Yes. GRACE FRAGA: ...design t-shirt and then go from there. CHANTELLE TIBBS: Yeah. Look, see how easy this is? Anybody can do this. This is just me picking a font. That... GRACE FRAGA: Wow. CHANTELLE TIBBS: ...entire design was based off of just a font choice. GRACE FRAGA: And the bantering. CHANTELLE TIBBS: And a banter and an inside joke. GRACE FRAGA: First step then, go ahead, get inspired, and take your inspiration from real life and go ahead, write it down with your favorite font. That's all it is."