How to be the Best T-shirt Chair : A Guide

As the Spring semester is in full swing there are so many socials, philanthropies, and recruitment events to prepare apparel for! On top of your already crazy busy schedule there’s no doubt it’s all becoming overwhelming already.  At this point in the semester, you might have some last-minute designs you want to squeeze in before everyone leaves for the summer or you already may be dreaming about the hits you’re going to make for the fall. Whether you’re in the now or planning ahead here are five things you need to know about what is currently trending in the T-Shirt world:

1. Custom-made illustrations.If you haven’t noticed, we’re starting to see this theme become prevalent in many companies. We have top notch artists here who will gladly turn your sketch, or even your idea of a sketch, into a reality.
2. Bold colors are in.The bolder, the better. Make a statement with a shirt color, or with the graphic on a shirt. Whether the actual shirt is a bold color, or the design pops off the canvas, bold colors are catching eyes this year.
3. Asymmetry is out of place and in style.Shift things up! Whether it is with the font and words or the design all together, not all things have to be perfectly symmetrical.
4. BIG FONTS. Big fonts get the point across in a creative way. With new typography and fonts developing every day, use your words!
5. Minimalism. It’s here, it’s simple, but makes a big statement. More and more we’re seeing designs get smaller, and simpler. Even though the design is minimal, it’s doing the maximum.

 Don’t just take it from us! Check out how the Phi Delta Theta t-shirt chair at the University of Arkansas stepped up the design game in a whole new way.

What’s up, my name is Ken Shew and I’m the T-Shirt Chair for Phi Delta Theta at the University of Arkansas. Whenever it’s time for one of our functions or events, I usually start by just looking online for things related to the theme if I don’t already have an idea in mind. I’m not sure if everyone else is the same way… but I’m pretty picky on what I want on shirts, even down to the font. Usually I try to provide the art team with fonts I like, a sketch of what I want the graphic to look like, or some example photos I find online to draw inspiration from. It blows my mind every time how easy B-Unlimited makes it, and how good their artwork is.

One example was our Christmas shirt. I sketched out generally what I wanted… Santa with crossed arms wearing a Phi Delt Christmas sweater… and sent it to B-Unlimited for them to make a proof. The final product ended up being even better than what I pictured, but still being generally what I sketched.

Not everyone has drawing capabilities, so while it is so awesome to see a sketch turn into a graphic there are definitley other ways to do it. I think the best approach to creating a t-shirt is find some graphics you like that have to do with the topic.  Once you find some things you like, send B-Unlimited all of them. That way the artist can pull from all of them and make a super cool shirt instead of just asking them to copy one design.

For me, it’s important to do shirts unlike any we’ve previously done, and stay relevant to what people want to see. It’s hard to find a balance between too trendy, and classic, but sometimes if you release something you may be surprised how well it sells. One example is when we did tan hoodies, and white hoodies. From what I have seen, a fraternity does a gray crewneck every year with a pretty generic design, so it was somewhat risky to change it up on everyone.

 Although these were really minimalistic and only had small font on them, they were some of our best sellers! We had to put the flag hoodies back up because more people wanted them once they were out. That being said, don’t be afraid to release something that you’re afraid people may not want because you never know, and there’s no harm in trying something new!

Keep following along for more trends, tips, and tricks for how you can be the best apparel chair your chapter has ever had before. Check out our Pinterest page if you need some inspo to shake up your designs!