Shirts
I have designed many shirts over the years at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Styles and purposes ranged from temporary exhibit promotion, annual events like PRIDE, and small batch specialty event shirts. Styles ranged short-sleeve to long, t-shirts and heavy crew-neck sweaters.
Regardless of the type, color, or audience of the final piece, I was involved in every step of the process. Shirt production is broken down into the same five steps:
- Establish theme & requirements
- Communicate with print-house
- Initial design & drafts
- Finalizing design
- At print & pickup
Establish Theme & Requirements
Step one is to always figure out the nitty gritty details. This can be something as simple as “make something rainbow for PRIDE” or as detailed “I need something with this exact language and theme, conveying this exact tone”. Things like quantity, ideal fabric, and timelines all also come into play at this step.
Communicate With Print-House
The print-house is both a step two and an ongoing process interwoven with three & four. I am constantly communicating with the printer during the entire process, as to ensure that by the time we are ready to send to print all questions have been answered and wrinkles smoothed out.
The starting point is usually the initial quote after getting the theme & requirements. Initial shirt sourcing comes into play here. Depending on timelines, the shirt source & details must be finalized here as to meet the print date. Usually in my work I have gone with District ReTee, for both shirts, long sleeves, sweaters, and sweatshirts.
Once that quote has been approved from a budgetary standpoint, I will jump to the initial design & drafts. Depending on how much variation there is from the initial pitch, I may reach out later on in the process for a revised quote.
Initial Design & Drafts
I begin to design in earnest once the theme & requirements have been established. Starting with simple pencil to paper designs and ending with a small flight of different options, the design process usually aims to have a maximum of three rounds of revisions. By that point, I aim to have a semi-finalized design, barring small tweaks or palette swaps.
Finalizing Design
Once the design is finalized the shirt is mocked up and passed off to related parties for final review. The style, type, and color of the shirt have all been finalized, and an order has been placed with the printer for quantity & sizes.
Once the design is approved by all related parties, I finally pass along the design to print.
At Print & Pickup
Once the design is approved by all related parties, I finally pass along the design to print. This usually means including preview mockups, a few native files, as well as an eps or two. This is usually passed along via Dropbox, email, or an ftp site on the printer’s end.
Once the shirts have cleared production and are ready, I pick them up, and coordinate the passing out and dispersal to staff, volunteers, members, or external partners.
