Corporate Games Shirt

So I'm submitting a design for my father's company that is participating in a county wide corporate games. Events include running, swimming, frisbee, poker, laser tag, billiards, basketball etc. Each company enters employees and they compete and what not. Each company gives out shirts to their employees to wear during the day. It's supposed to be a fun, athletic theme etc etc etc Anyway it's screen printing with a four color maximum and I've never designed something to be printed on a shirt. I'm wondering if the best option for shading is half-toning with black and white and then using something like blue and something else as other colors?

The design will be on a light color t-shirt, not sure which color yet.

This is what I have so far, coming up with characters in different positions playing different sports/games.



Any advice would be much appreciated.

Does your dad's company have a team name?

Nah. The t-shirt is also serving as an event reminder, something that people will wear after so on the back it will say "Baxter Corporate Games" in some form. I'm planning on having an office far in the background and these people running toward the viewer (perspective wise) exploding with activity sort of... if that makes sense at all. Once I have more drawn up i'll post. (WIP )

That does make sense. Sounds like a great idea. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

I think event shirts look good in primary color - especially if you're sticking with the blue. Blue is a good color.

The billiards player doesn't appear to be in any recognizable billiards stance. The way the legs are drawn, it looks like more of a seated (or jumping) position.

I'm planning on having 3-4 figures on each side of the design with 2-3 of them running and then smaller behind one of them jumping up, which is why the billiards player looks as he/she does. Once I have more done I'll post and then if it still looks weird I can work with it.

That is some extreme sport version of playing pool, Kung Fu mid air Pool game?

I think you need to look at pictures of people and see which position or poses are best and use them as a base.

It's supposed to be silly. It's a bunch of bio-engineers playing lazer tag and shit.

If you're going to get the shirts screen printed with a maximum of 4 colors, I would stay away from shading as much as possible. But, if you do want shading, halftones will definitely be your best choice.

(I will add more feedback when I can view your designs at home, since they are probably hosted on a site that's blocked through my works internet and I can't see anything. )

I like the design. Even as one poster said the pool one is a little extreme, I think it's fun.

As for Printing Tshirts. I work for a screen printing company and here are some recommendations in the technical aspect:

Keep colours in design low 1 or 2. In screen printing you pay for each colour.
Use halftones of those colours for more depth if you like. They don't count as an extra screen ($$$)
4 colour process never looks the greatest on Shirts and only works reasonably well on just white.
Also design in a vector format to start cause most screen printers need or really prefer vector art (remember to outline fonts)

That's all I got. Upload the final art when you are done

If you do use halftones - make sure the dot size is pretty large. Depending on your printer, you might not get an even tone. It seems like it would look better with flat color, though. (on your design)

TG - when you 4C print, don't you underprint white?

TG - when you 4C print, don't you underprint white?

We don't do 4C process here at my shop cause the think the designs aren't as shop. We use spot colors with halftones to find the best contrast in colours and making the whole design more vibrant.
Yes we do under print white on anything going on dark shirts when we can. Also for under printing we wouldn't under print really dark colours like Black or Navy, but light colours need it on dark shirts.

If you do use halftones - make sure the dot size is pretty large. Depending on your printer, you might not get an even tone.

Just to add to that: If you have to use half tone, set the tone lower then what you want it to be by 10-15% cause a lot of the time you get dot gain when screen printing. Also make the half tone a good contrast, so don't try using just a 90% tone or something cause it will just fill in and look like a mistake.

Edited by T Graphics, 02 March 2009 - 01:54 PM.
monday morning spelling mistakes

Hi,
It is great to join your discussion...According to me wearing the same color T-shirts will look good and it will be like unity. If the company members maintain the same color then it is like the real match for both the opponents.

Billiards

Since it's supposed to be silly you should add some accessories, like glasses and pocket protectors, lol.

Ok so update! Sorry it's taken so long to respond, things have been pretty crazy for me the past two weeks. So here is what I have, though I'm not sure how to make it ideal for printers to use (grouping colors/layers) etc.

I kinda like it. the shapes are different the the sleek looking onese everyone uses for body movement images.
When I was making my own shirts using screens, I made a layer for each color used then printed each (blacked out) onto a clear sheets (remember your crop marks, for lining up layers) I'd also lable what each color should be or numbered them accordingly. But I'd ask who ever is making the shirts how they want it done. If I didn't print on top of each color I'd add a little bleed (overlap) between each part/image.. Hope that helps I know there are some shirt guys here that will be of better help, as I did mine in my garage, setting up screens in the bath room. LOL

I'm not sure how to make it ideal for printers to use (grouping colors/layers) etc.

I work for a screen printing company. As long as you give it to them in vector they will love you. We separate all customer art ourselves. You don't have to group every colour or anything. I would just say make sure your colours are pantones and make sure your halftones are a % of the pantone you want and not a CMYK equivalent or transparency. You are looking at a 3 screens from what I can see: White, Black and Blue. If you go on darker shirts then a good screen printer will want to back up the white and blue with another white underneath which they may or may not charge you for. If you stick to light colours you should be good as just 3.

Any other questions about the technical for screen printing let me know.

is that gray/blue in with the white a halftone of the blue?

So I got feedback that the shirt is going to be white. They also asked for another color so I added yellow. I'm not sure if I should keep the balls as is or try and do something different with them. Also tweaked the basketball players legs.



edit: also changed colors to pantone library

Edited by awhipl, 05 March 2009 - 08:56 PM.