Tuloso Midway High School soccer team came to us to get some custom t-shirts made for their upcoming soccer season. We asked if they needed help designing the custom screen printed t-shirts and we found out real quick that they didn’t. The design they came up with was phenomenal. Good luck with the upcoming season because we are pretty sure if you play like you design, the season should be pretty good!

I know it is the time of the season but we sure have been doing a lot of custom soccer t-shirts lately. This soccer t-shirt design is definitely one that deserves accolades.

1. MySpace Junkie
   
   There is probably an inverse relationship between the number of friends one has in reality to the number of friends one has on Myspace. So, for all of you Myspace friend adding psycho’s out there, this one is for you.
2. WordPress Blogging Platform
   
   I’m not sure how ecstatic a person could get about their word press blog. I mean, unless you’re making tons of money off of advertising like Perez Hilton, I can’t see you running out to buy your spanking new “WordPress” t-shirt.
3. Librarian Bust
   
   Remember back in the 80’s when you had to do research for a paper and you would actually take “trips” to the library? It’s obvious that with the advent of Google and how it transformed the search for information, that same paper that may have taken you 10 hours to research and write may now only take you 5! It’s great for the researchers but horrible for traditional librarians!
4. RTFM
   
   There seems to be a cleaver relationship between the geek phrase “Read the Effing Manual” and the Red book that was endorsed by the former chairman of the communist part of China, Mao Zedong. I could just see Mao right now yelling to his deprived nation, “RTFM!!!”
5. PWN3D
   
   For all of the gamers and other competitive nerds, this one’s for you.
6. Graphic/Web Designers
   
   If you think you’ve got a “sixth sense” for criticizing graphic design, you should probably own this one. If you often feel there could be something added to the space and the pixels “just aren’t right”, you should own this one too!
7. Wireless Frequency Network Nerds
   
   Everyone knows that the universal frequency for a wifi signal is 802.11, why not wear it? Does this shirt somehow imply that you’d like others to connect to your “personal” network? Hopefully your network isn’t password protected or you’ll probably be having a night alone.
8. All your base are belong to us!
   
   So, this is a mash-up shirt that combines common hex values and the Zero Wing arcade game.
9. Programming and Computer Languages
   
   
10. PTOE T Shirt
    
    Just in case you’re really into chemistry and you haven’t already memorized each element in the Periodic Table of Elements, you can refer to your shirt—I’m sure this guy does.
11. SYN - Denial of Attack
    
    I’m not sure who this guy is sending his SYN packets to, but I hope it’s not our server!

We recently were contacted by MotionNotes on a Friday afternoon to see if it would be possible to print 200 shirts by the following Wednesday. The team at MotionNotes were very apologetic about the short notice but they had no idea that they were making our day. We were more than happy to help them as they are preparing for their new product launch.

MotionNotes in their own words:

“MotionNotes also lets you attach and send compelling multimedia content to accompany your personal video message.”

In our words:

“They have created a platform to email your videos and video messages to any one you want.”

The job we printed was very clever because their logo was consistent on the back of the shirts but they wanted different tag lines printed on the front. Here is the screen shots of what their t-shirts looked like:

We are looking forward to their launch and wish them the best of luck!

Half tones are a very easy and effective way to print gradients and maximize the amount of colors in a print while keeping the cost down. Let me first begin by showing you a picture of what half tones are. Here is a really good design we printed that used half tones as a cool effect without adding anything to the price:

Now, we’ll zoom up closer to view the half tones:

The name half tone is a bit deceiving because it is rarely 50% of the color as the name would imply. A half tone can actually be any percentage of an original color. Once a color has been reduced to a smaller percentage, it appears to be another color that is lighter than the original. Some good examples would be black to grey or red to pink. This is accomplished by printing varying sizes of dots of the color and allowing the t-shirt color to show through. The combination of less ink being laid down and the t-shirt color showing through and make a very interesting and effective print.

The best part about this process is the fact that it doesn’t cost more to do this. In fact, it actually costs less when compared to using two different colors for the same effect. The only downside is when the print is magnified, it is not as solid and “convincing” as an original spot color.

So if you’re on a budget or want to add a cool value-added effect involving half-tones to your artwork, just let us know.

Printing photographs on t-shirts is one of the hardest jobs a screen printer can take on. Since screen printing is based on spot colors, or singular color inks, images that consist of thousands of colors such as photographs must be accomplished with four color process. Four color process for t-shirt printing is a way to separate the thousands of colors in a photograph into four single spot colors known as CMYK. The C stands for Cyan, the M is for Magenta, the Y is for yellow and the K is for key or black. These four colors run on four different screens and come together to look similar to the original photograph.

But as most customers tell us….just looking similar isn’t going to cut it. One of the best suggestions we can make to get the theme or concept across in the print is to convert that photograph or image as an animation. Here is a great example of a photograph that one of our customers wanted printed on black t shirts.

Here is the real image converted to a more animated image for print consisting of five spot colors.

These shirts came out great and our customer was extremely happy with them. They were very pleased that we made that suggestion and informed them of their alternatives instead of printing an image they wouldn’t have been happy with.

It’s a pain, but most apparel screen printers have mandatory minimums. The reason there are minimums is because the price to print single orders is astronomical! The more shirts you buy, the cheaper the price per shirt. That is how screen printers price, and their minimums usually start around 6, 12 or 15 pieces. Screen tees are the typical t-shirts you see everyday. They are printed on a spot paint printer, and the artwork generally lasts a very long time. It may take a while to receive your order depending on how large your order is, how backed up the screen printing company is, and the artwork being printed on the shirts. Most screen printers charge based on the quantity and the number of colors, or screens, in your design. Therefore, the price varies when it comes to each order, which is why many vendors opt to use the real-time pricing method instead of having a set price list. Yes, screen printing has its perks and its drawbacks, but if you are looking for an alternative, there is one.

Many people looking to buy screen printed shirts don’t need that many shirts. Some people just need one or two shirts. Fortunately, there is another alternative for those needing fewer printed tees! The solution is digital printed shirts. Digital printing is a method of printing that is fairly new. It allows printers to print without minimums for customers wanting only a few shirts. There are a lot of perks to using the digital printing alternative, but the disadvantages sometimes deter people from using it. Since the artwork is printed with ink, they can only be printed on lighter colored shirts. And, since the artwork is printed with ink, the artwork fades a bit faster as compared to screen printed apparel that is printed with paint. On the bright side, though, there are some great perks that come with using digital printing:

1. No minimums
2. All artwork, front and back, printed for one flat price, regardless of the number of colors
3. Order is typically shipped faster since order is smaller
4. Digital prints typically look just as good as screen prints

Many people have found companies that do digital print work, and they are very satisfied with the results! Digital printing has allowed people to print different shirts for different people for gifts, gags, and for themselves. They are a great personalized gift or prize, and they are fun to wear during the holidays, birthdays and any events. Since they are easy to create and easy to get, most people become repeat customers. If you want to make a personalized shirt for your child or a novelty t shirt for yourself, digital printed shirts are perfect because they are inexpensive and definitely worth the money.

The next time you want to create less than six shirts, give digital t shirt printing at You Design It a try. You won’t be disappointed!