See the whole design on Threadless ๐
Design
So tragic, so funny
We all get sad, we all have doubts, we are demotivated, confused. But we don’t necessarily want to wear it on our t-shirts for all the world to see. That would be like telling everyone you meet that you are depressed or endlessly complaining about your life.
But if you can make a bad situation funny, you create a distance. I keep it in mind when designing. I touched on this subject when I wrote about “Not Today” and “Overthinking and Also Hungry”. Designs need to be relatable โ overthinking and not feeling motivated are things that everyone deals with.
But sometimes I take it even a step further.
I wouldn’t wear a t-shirt with just the “despairing” word, unless maybe in an ironic sort of way. But that’s the thing, I can only show my emotions when I create some distance: if it’s either somehow ironic, or humorous. I don’t really want everyone to see that I am in my “despairing” mood, but I can wear a funny t-shirt that encapsulates this mood.
Vaguely Aware of Social Norms
Before the pandemic there used to be parties and gatherings. It’s not like I miss them because I didn’t really use to go to that many. I like spending time alone, in my apartment, working on things and drawing. So I didn’t go out often, but every now and then I went to meet my friends. Sometimes, if there were a lot of people or loud music, I would get tired of the noise and the talking. I can’t count the number of times that someone asked me if I was feeling alright or “why are you sitting alone and did something happen, you seem sad“.
It often seemed to me that others are better in social situations, more cheerful, know what to say, how to behave, they can talk with others for hours, and not get tired. That is, sort of, what inspired my design “Vaguely Aware of Social Norms”.
I must not be the only one feeling this way because when I posted this design on Threadless, people loved it. I like drawing something personal and then finding out that it’s relatable for others too.
Existing
Recently Threadless added one of my designs to their store. I wrote about that here.
Now, Threadless selected another one of my designs:
It’s a cat that has no motivation to get up. So, it’s relatable.
It has already been for sale in my Artist Shop. Threadless adding it to their own store means that more people see the design and more people buy it.
It’s good to have as many designs as you can create in your Artist Shop so that Threadless can browse them and select something for their store.
Also, when your design is selected, you usually get a $250 gift code, which is a nice bonus. I keep spending them on hoodies and t-shirts for my friends ๐
Get “Existing” here.
Overthinking and also hungry
When my “Not Today” design suddenly got so popular, I created more cat designs, like this one here:
Cat designs are popular because a lot of people love cats. But it’s not enough to just draw a cat, you need to add something relatable to a design.
I always try to think of a story for a design. That’s why I add texts that reflect feelings that all of us have. I sometimes lie on my bed and don’t feel motivated to get up, I overthink stuff I said or stupid things I did. From what I know, a lot of people sometimes feel like that too.
You can never predict what will be popular, but you can sort of see why a design like the one above was so well received. We worry, we overthink, we don’t feel like moving at all.
You can get this design on Threadless or Hot Topic.
Last design of 2020
I was thinking that you have to reject what others want from you and do your own thing.
Increase sales of black and white designs
This is a simple trick to have a few more sales. Maybe you know it, but frankly, this trick hasn’t occurred to me until after a few years of designing t-shirts. I’m going to write it down here, in case there’s someone else who hasn’t thought of it.
Some people really don’t want to buy dark t-shirts. And some people won’t buy light t-shirts. Let’s accommodate both those groups.
I made a lot of cat designs. This is one of them:
When I made this design I checked if it looked good when colors were reversed:
It did look fine. Turns out this design works well both as a white design on a black t-shirt and as a black design on a white t-shirt. So now both versions are for sale in my shop.
If you have a white design and you sell it on a black t-shirt, then invert the colors and check if it looks good too.
However, don’t just submit every design in two color options, it doesn’t always work. For example, this one looks good on dark but wouldn’t make sense on a white t-shirt:
What is this madness?
One of my designs has been added to the Threadless store. Yay! I received an email a few hours ago.
Now, what exactly does it mean that a design is added to the Threadless store?
First, what you need to know is that there are two ways to sell designs on Threadless:
- One way is to simply create your own Artist Shop. For example, I have my Fox Shiver Artist Shop. You can add any design you want to your shop. You can have hundreds of designs. But, at least in the beginning, those designs might not be visible in the main Threadless store.
- The second way is for Threadless to select one of your designs to add to their own Threadless store. Every time there’s a design challenge, a few of the best entries are selected. And sometimes Threadless might select a design from your own Artist Shop.
My first design that they selected was “Not Today” and it was one of the seven designs selected from the Black and White Design Challenge.
When your design is selected and added to the Threadless store, it means better visibility and a higher chance that someone is going to see it and buy it.
That’s why it’s so important to add all your designs to your shop. The more designs you have, the better chance that one of them is going to be selected. Same with challenges โ submit your designs to challenges and you get a chance that Threadless likes them and wants them in their store.
And remember, you never know what is going to be popular, so submit every design. I very nearly deleted one of my best-selling designs because I thought no one was going to want it.
Oh, and one more thing, usually when your design is selected to be added to the Threadless store, you get a $250 gift code to be used in the Threadless store on anything you want.
Galaxy design – how it’s made
This is my Galaxy design:
Someone asked me about this design: how it’s made, why it looks kind of ‘silver’. So I am sharing it here in case you find it interesting too.
This is a close up:
And even more close up:
As you can see, it’s painted with the most basic hard pencil brush in Photoshop.
“Zen Maze” design sales stats
I think it might be interesting to share how much each of my designs has earned. For today I have selected “Zen Maze”.
“Zen Maze” is a moderately successful design, which means the sales are somewhat in the middle among my designs.
Sales Stats
Average Monthly Earnings: $58
Total Earned: $755
How long did it take to make?
It took me 2 hours to make and another 1 hour to modify it for different products.
The design on apparel is slightly different than the design on most other items. I didn’t want it to be a regular rectangle when printed on clothes, so I erased some parts and made it irregular:
But on other items it looks best when it takes up all the space: