See that t-shirt up there, that is not a t-shirt, that, apparently (and I am skeptical) is a mock up. It was made up (I think) by Jeff Finley from Go Media (you’re probably more aware of their blog if you’re the kind of person that designs rather than hires designers), and I’d really like to see a tutorial about it because if this is a relatively simple process then I’d love to see it being used by more designers.
You’ve probably gotten bored of the amount I complain about poor mock ups and photoshoots of the tees and hoodies I feature, and partly I bitch because I want to have good looking images on my website, but I also mention it so frequently because on the internet we can only judge clothes by the way they look on the screen (though I’d like to think that my reviews help to give a more accurate impression of the companies that send me tees), and if your mock up doesn’t look good, you aren’t representing your own hard work well, and you aren’t giving t-shirt buyers a reason to buy your t-shirts, and I find that really frustrating.
Hoo, I feel better after that little rant, now get out there and fix yourdamn mock ups.
I’ve never started a clothing line, so coming to me for advice on the nuts and bolts of everything would be, to be frank, risky. So instead of writing up some pointers for you that might not necessarily make any sense, I’m going to point you towards a few links, that may be of help.
How To Start A Clothing Line is a blog about European literature in the early 19th century, well, if you can’t work out what that blog is about then I’m amazed you were able to get on the internet. It is written by Jon Kruse, the guy behind Mediocore Clothing, who happened to turn 25 yesterday (Happy Birthday Jon!), and features pretty much every aspect of starting your own line, from boring admin stuff to designing and printing tees, as well as marketing so that you can actually sell the tees after putting so much time and effort into them. There’s also interviews with other people in the industry.
Fuel For Design is an ebook by Gino from Color Overload. If you can get over the excited(!) marketing speak on the website, I have it on good authority that it’s worth the $37, I’m sure I read other reviews saying it was good, but I can’t remember where they are now, although Rude Retro questions whether Gino has the experience to write such a book.
The Art of Apparel. This blog is like a regular tee blog, but with more of a focus on the industry side of things, recently got caught up in major drama for posting an interview in which someone said what they thought.
Emptees. Sometimes you’ll get absolutely nailed by forum members that would rather make a joke than help you (they’re mostly harmless though), but if you want to know pretty much anything about the tee biz then the answer can be found here. Make sure you use the search function before asking a question though.
T-Shirt Forums. Like Emptees, except without the Lolcats.
That should probably get you started, if anyone can think of any more wonderful resources please let me know in the comments.
Update: I happened to come across a couple more resources you may find interesting/helpful:
23 Great Apparel Related Design Articles at My Ink Blog [via... someone, I can't remember who, if you're a tee blogger that posted this please let me know and I'll link you up]
Eric Terry, the man behind Linty Fresh (that’s him up there!), held a video webchat on Sunday evening in which he would answer people’s questions about the indie tee industry and share his experiences. With the time difference between the US and UK Eric’s Q&A sessions are on a little late for HYA’s bed time, but by all accounts they’re really useful and people are getting a lot out of them.
Unfortunately, the show was not recorded, however, Coty transcribed the who thing (on the fly as well, from what I gather), and has the whole thing on his blog, so head on over there and get some learning done.
I know I’m venturing into unchartered waters here, but I’d like to think that HYA has a duty to help out clothing designers as well as clothing buyers (yes, very much overlapping groups, but you know what I mean), and if it means that I don’t have to post pictures of poorly mocked-up hoodies, then I guess that everyone is a winner.
I don’t know whether $50 is a lot for a bunch of hoodie templates, but if you consider how much time these would save you, and that the results almost look like real printed hoodies, in my rather uneducated opinion they’re a pretty good deal.
Go Media have also put together a video about the package (feed readers may need to open the page to see the video):
[I don't know what that sign is about, I took this photo in Manchester!]
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That title is fairly well laced with snark, but its only meant in jest, Johnny Cupcakes is an inspiration to a lot of small clothing brand owners, and he seems like a nice guy too.One of the nice things that he does is give out advice to pretty much anyone that asks. The latest example [...]
