Creating the Perfect T-shirt for Your Audience

Last week, my son asked for help designing a T-shirt for his reading group at school, “The Mind Readers”. He’d already made several sketches and we set about putting these ideas together on-screen. Interestingly, many of his ideas were on-trend with the type of designs we’ve been seeing in custom T-shirt trends this year.

This year, T-shirt orders are still trending toward the fitted, extra-soft, ring-spun cotton T’s we’ve loved these past few years. Surprisingly though, clients are beginning to request a more vintage, heavier-weight, classic-cut T-shirt. This unisex style has a wider neckline and longer sleeves, a slightly boxier fit, and a timeless appeal.

For shirt colors, we still see the tye-dyes we saw last year, along with some extra-bright, even neon colors. We also see the opposite extreme of extra-muted, neutral colors, like beige, putty, and pastels.

The designs we’re printing are sparse and attention-grabbing. Just the company logo, or a single word doing the talking. We’re seeing more colors, brighter colors, and We’ve already seen a lot of sparse, text-based designs that let the company logo or a single word do the talking. And of course, black-and-white is a forever favorite.

As for my son’s shirt, he chose a black shirt with repetitions of the group name and a singular image of a little cartoon brain reading a book.

If you need help choosing the right shirt and the right design for your workers or you upcoming event, the Bergman Incentives teams would love to help. We’ll account for your audience, your budget, and your brand to come up with a solution that’s perfectly tailored to your needs. Contact us today!