Want to design T-shirts? Learn how to use Illustrator.

I saw one of my screen printers post a comment on FaceBook a while back venting his frustration of some file types that people would send him of their artwork.  Went something like this. "A Word document is not an illustration file".  That one gave me a good chuckle.  But I doubt he was too upset since it was an opportunity to make a little extra coin charging an art fee.  This is typically a charge that screen printers charge to "prep" your artwork if its not already done.  The typical charges that I see for art services is around $40 an hour but that probably fluctuates depending on your location and skill level.

When I started designing T-Shirts I watched a lot, and I mean a lot, of YouTube videos and tutorials on Adobe's website learning the ins and outs of Illustrator and designing Vector graphics in general.  I have been using Photoshop and other pixel based image programs for years and I knew that I could create my designs using these programs.  But I also knew that it would be more difficult to get things just right so I decided if I was going to be taken seriously and wanted to be a good designer I need to use the right tool.  Illustrator is that right tool for me.

To get you started here is a quick tut on knocking out shapes & text in your designs.  This allows the color of the shirt to show through the design in areas where no ink will be applied.