Creating Custom Merchandise for Your Business

It is essential that you design and create custom merchandise for your business. You may design apparel such as t-shirts and sweatshirts, but also any other piece of clothing. This type of design allows you to not only promote your company’s name but also design something to sell to consumers.

Designing Merchandise Using Adobe Illustrator

1. Start a new document in Illustrator or open an old file. The design for this example will be a base layer with white text on black fabric, so select “white” as the color swatch for your foreground and make sure that there isn’t anything selected by pressing Command-A (PC: Control A). Type out the artwork using Helvet Neue Condensed Bold with a font size of 50 pt. Use the type tool to change the design to your design on a separate art board.
2. Fill your design with white by selecting it with the Selection tool and clicking on the “white swatch” in your toolbar. See Figure 1 for example.
3. Change the sizes of your artwork by highlighting it, pressing Command-T (PC: Control T), and using these settings: Vertical – 25 px; Horizontal – 32 px; and click scale.
4. Turn off the visibility for this layer by clicking on its eye icon or going to View>Hidden Characters.

Creating Custom Merchandise Using Adobe Photoshop

1. Create a new document that is 24″ x 36″. You can design on the entire file or create an artboard that is 8.5″ x 11.” It depends on what design you want to do.
2. Fill your design with white by selecting it with the Rectangle tool and clicking on the “white swatch” in your toolbar. For this design, I made mine 12 pt thick so I had more of a design to work with when printing it out, but again, it depends on the design you are creating for yourself. See Figure 2 for an example of my design white filled.
3. Change the sizes of your artwork by highlighting it, pressing Command-T (PC: Control T), and using these settings: Vertical – 25 px; Horizontal – 32 px; and click scale.
4. Turn off the visibility for this layer by clicking on its eye icon or going to View>Hidden Characters.

Creating Custom Merchandise Using Other Photo Editing Software

1. Create a new document that is 24″ x 36″. You can design on the entire file or create an artboard that is 8.5″ x 11.” It depends on what design you want to do.
2. Fill your design with white by selecting it with the Rectangle tool and clicking on the “white swatch” in your toolbar. For this design, I made mine 12 pt thick so I had more of a design to work with when printing it out, but again, it depends on the design you are creating for yourself. See Figure 2 for an example of my design white filled.
3. Change the sizes of your artwork by highlighting it, pressing Command-T (PC: Control T), and using these settings: Vertical – 25 px; Horizontal – 32 px; and click scale.
4. Turn off the visibility for this layer by clicking on its eye icon or going to View>Hidden Characters.
5. Save your design as a PNG file so that you can upload it to Merch Ready or another design site. You should design at least one artboard with white in the design since your designs will be printed onto black fabric when purchased from you, but you should also design another artboard with just a design. Using direct to film print gives you a variety of options to customize your items.
6. Sign up at Merch Ready, Moonfrog, Custom Ink, Spreadshirt, or another design site. To sign up for Merch Ready go to www.merchreadyapparelprinting.com/. Be sure to read reviews from others so that you can make an educated decision about which service is best for you and your business needs.
7. Upload your PNG file to the design site and choose “Customize” then “Advanced Options.” Select Black Shirt as well as Gildan Ultra Cotton T-Shirts under product options along with choosing women’s sizing if needed as well as quantities until you reach your desired price point. 
8. Upload your design to the design site and design the back of your shirt as well as any other design that you want to feature on another artboard if you are using more than one design (i.e., front & back).
9. Design a small logo or lettering, which will be printed out on paper along with the design’s barcode, size, etc., for proofing purposes to submit with your order when paying by check or cash through an online payment service such as PayPal Pro at www.paypalpro.com/. Save this design as a PNG file so that it can include any changes needed from proofing to final print without ruining the image quality printing onto the shirts themselves.

Conclusion:

After designing your design ensure that you save your design as a PNG file at least once to be used for proofing if needed. Most design sites will offer this service to you for free. Test the design on different color fabric types and sizes of shirts before submitting an order. You can use transfer paper or Heat Transfer Material (HTM) for application onto the shirt, but note that it is more expensive than Gildan Ultra Cotton T-Shirts as well as typically only available in white with some design limitations such as not being able to design on top of them using other software except Photoshop. Be sure to read reviews from others who may have used those services through those sites before making your final decision on first make your own hoodie.