Advice for printing company shirts.

I have spent some years now working with designing apparel for screen printing, embroidery and sublimation. There is one constant trend that almost seems to refuse to die. So here it is...

Stop getting your companies phone number, web url or other info printed on your shirts.

First off,  no one is reading your shirt for important information. Lets say that you see a construction company working and they are doing great work. You need a company for a build and look to get in contact with them. How many of us go up to a worker and ask them to read their shirt so you can take down the number. Or creep on them while you try to make out the number or website.

Maybe you are sitting in a restaurant and you love their food and have an event coming up you want them to cater. Do you stare at the employees to try and make out the info on the shirt?

What is the one thing we all do. The first thing we grab...our cell phone. We see the name of that construction company or restaurant and we Google the companies name to find out more information about them. Whether we need a number, address, email website... anything. We head to Google for answers.

No one is getting answer from the shirt you are wearing.

So since it isn't providing value in information, those pieces of information on the shirt are now wasted ink and space. You could be using that space for a bad ass design or even to just make your company logo bigger nice and clean so people can read it easily when they go to Google you.  Stop wasting space, ink, design space and money on printing people don't use. 

Be organized.

This is a short and sweet tip for any designer out there.

Be more organized with your designs. 

Be able to use grids, proper alignments, rulers etc to properly compose whatever you are designing is of the utmost importance. We often rely too much on our eye to make these judgment calls. As good as some of our eyes are, being able to make pixel perfect decisions with grid lends itself to super well organized and balanced aesthetics. 

This is super important in typography. Learning how to properly set tools is the foundation for learning and applying all other gestalt theories. I am still working on my typesetting skills myself and when they progress my eye for everything else increases and I make better choices with composition.

Design is quickly becoming integral to UX/UI. They need to learn how to work hand in hand. A flashy webpage or a slick product does not mean a lot if the user experience or interface is terrible. So designing with the user in mind is of the utmost importance. 

Helping myself

There has been one thing that has helped me the most in my search for growth as a designer. It is pretty simple

Do more work and make it public.

I always thought that I was a perfectionist growing up. That I did such little amounts of pieces and work because I always wanted it to be perfect. But in the recent years I have learned that that is a bunch of crap.

I was and am.... scared.

When I was younger my sketchbook was always filled with finished pieces mostly and not ideas. It was filled with things that I would be proud to show people if they thumbed through my book. I was scared to have anyone look at stuff that wasn't good, that wasn't finished and that didn't show my skills. There was some kind of irrational fear that showed itself as perfectionism. 

There was a moment where I became a bit more self aware about my own growth as a person and designer. I was stagnant and boring...there was nothing being added and I professionally suffered for it (hell even personally).

So I decided to do more work...and show people. I made a online portfolio and an Instagram account along with some other platforms to showcase my work. It forces me to continually do more work, practicing, trying new ideas trying to better myself. But most importantly I have it public. For all eyes to see, to judge, to like, to not like..to comment etc etc.

This helps to keep me honest. To slowly build a body of work that represents who I am as a designer and person.

Hopefully this lesson doesn't come too late for me. Hopefully any damage done can slowly be mended as I try to "Quiet the lizard brain." Seth Godin. And do my best to be proud of my work.

So my tip to anyone out there. Do more work....and show it.