T-Shirt Design Workshop 02: Mixed Media Design
What you'll learn
- Design a t-shirt using various computer and traditional design tools
- Create thumbnail sketches to quickly test initial design ideas
- Layout type in Adobe Illustrator, using Adobe Typekit fonts
- Create custom Photoshop brushes to add color and texture to designs
- Incorporate hand-drawn effects into computer-based designs
- Choose Pantone colors to specify screen printing ink colors
- Size a t-shirt graphic to the correct resolution and dimensions
- Prepare designs to be printed with sublimation and direct-to-garment methods
- Refine graphic designs by moving seamlessly from hand-sketching to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
- Fill out a "spec sheet" for screen printing, so your t-shirt comes back printed with the correct colors, sizing, and placement
- Create color separations in Photoshop and Illustrator using "index" and "halftone" methods (without the need for other expensive software)
Requirements
- Students should have some prior knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator. Skills such as how to scan images into Photoshop, an understanding of layers, and how to size images. This is not a basic entry level course for Photoshop and Illustrator.
Description
Improving your t-shirt design skills is one of the most rewarding investments that you can make in your design career.
In this workshop we will go over the entire process of creating a t-shirt design, from finding ideas all the way to sending your designs out to be printed.
We will send out the design to 3 different printers. At the end, those shirts will be unboxed so you can see exactly how they came back from the printer (there will be a few unexpected surprises you can learn from!)
In this course we’ll cover:
- How to find and apply inspiration
- The various computer tools and traditional tools you will need to create t-shirt designs.
- How to move seamlessly between Photoshop, Illustrator, and pencil & paper so your designs come out as good or better than you had initially imagined
- Type layout using Adobe Typekit fonts
- How to create your own custom Photoshop brushes to quickly add color and texture to your designs
- How to incorporate hand-drawn effects into a computer-based design
- How to make sure your graphic is screen printed with the exact ink colors, sizing, and placement that you want
- Printing with sublimation and DTG (direct-to-garment) methods
- Avoiding common mistakes so your t-shirts come back printed exactly as designed
As a bonus you will also receive:
- The Photoshop watercolor brushes made in the workshop
- All 3 colorways of the finished “South Shore” design created (Photoshop format)
- 2 bonus lectures showing methods to create “index” and “halftone” screen printing color separations in Photoshop and Illustrator without the need for any extra software
- Downloadable files for the two color separation methods demonstrated in the workshop
Who this course is for:
- This course is meant for anyone who wants to improve their t-shirt designs, using hand-drawn techniques, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator. The software instruction is taught at an intermediate level. Students should already have familiarity with using Photoshop and Illustrator. If you understand layers, tools, and how to draw objects in Photoshop and Illustrator, then this should be enough for you to follow the computer sections of this class. Please note that the two lectures on color separations are more advanced software instruction. But these lectures can be considered optional, and not necessary for all students.
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Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 4,638 Reviews
- 16,877 Students
- 4 Courses
Ray's extensive background in the surf apparel industry started in 2002. Since then he has designed for many of the top surf apparel brands in California and Hawaii, such as O'Neill, Billabong, Ocean Pacific, BodyGlove, and Local Motion. He is the founder of TheVectorLab, a website that offers graphic design resources, tools, and tutorials. As a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and Florida State University his experience is backed by a mix of business and design knowledge.