Scratching your head wondering where to begin when it comes to designing your merch? You’re not alone. Many people have a vision of what they want their merchandise to look like but find it hard to put those ideas into designs or artwork. Some have no clue what to even design and need more inspiration to get to their own ideas.
If you are designing t-shirts, bottles, bags, hoodies or more, each product’s design, whether it be your brand logo or creative artwork, some thought must go into it! Your simplistic or complex ideas can easily be translated to designs, artwork, and slogans that can fit on any product!
Research
We love research at Merchr and when it comes to designing, we think research is key! Knowing the colours and type of illustrations that your audience likes, or buys is a good starting point for when deciding what to design and what product or product colour to put your design on to. Think about what and who you are designing for and who might be buying your merch.
Make a plan
When setting out to design your merch, it may be worth jotting down your ideas, the vision you see in your head and the main points of messaging that you want to convey on your merch whether it be through imagery or text. Having a short plan ensures you do not go astray when designing and end up wasting time on creating something you or your customers won’t actually like.
Be original
When it comes to designing and creating artwork for your merch, being original is key! Your ideas should be your own and when you sell merch that has your own original creative ideas put onto product, there is no better feeling!
Take inspiration but also think outside the box
Look for inspiration from friends, trends, and the current pop culture climate. Seeing what’s popular can help spark the creative idea from within and lead to some awesome flowing designs!
Whilst inspiration can come from within your comfort zone and what you know, it can also come from placing yourself outside the box. Looking beyond what you know can also allow for creative ideas to come, especially ideas you have never thought about!
Do what comes to mind… you might surprise yourself!
Trial and error
If your designs aren’t selling, don’t be disheartened. Re-think your designs and don’t be afraid to try again. You don’t even have to take your previous designs off from your website but just add new ones!
The Nitty Gritty
Typography
If putting text onto your merch, choosing a font style, size, appearance, and structure is important. When talking about typography, consistency is also key. Using the same typography across your designed merch allows for your collection to be more uniformed. However, it may be that you want your merch products to be uniquely their own to which different typography for each design or product would be suitable.
Colour scheme or palette
Colour can be very impactful in setting a tone or conveying a message. The psychology of colours is highly referenced and applied by many professionals from graphic designers to marketers when designing and marketing everything from products to brands. When designing your merch, it should be no different. The use of colour can be incorporated in your merch collection products (that come in a variety of colours) in addition to colours of your designs and artwork. The use of colour in your merch should be well thought out, especially if you are making branded merch.
Imagery and graphics
When selecting or designing illustrations, artwork, images, or graphics for your merch, it is important to think about what messages, if any, you want them to convey. “A picture is worth a thousand words” as the saying goes… The use of imagery and graphics in merch can be a very effective way of conveying complex and multiple ideas or meanings. Using an image or graphic to describe something is often easier and pre-dominantly used in merchandise collections as it captures an audience’s attention quicker.
You don’t have to be Picasso or Michelangelo to successfully design your merch… be your own artist and designer. Your designs and customised merch are subjective, as is your customer’s taste in merch. If designing isn’t for you, do not panic! We have pre-designed products in the Merchr hub which have been designed by our talented in-house designers and are available for all to use! We are also always open to suggestions on wanted designs and would love to hear from you!
