T-Shirt Design Workshop 02: Using Photoshop, Illustrator, and Hand-Drawing Techniques

In this workshop we will go over the entire process of creating a t-shirt design, from finding ideas all the way to sending your designs out to be printed.

We will send out the design to 3 different printers. At the end, those shirts will be unboxed so you can see exactly how they came back from the printer (there will be a few unexpected surprises you can learn from!)

In this class we’ll cover:

• How to find and apply inspiration
• The various computer tools and traditional tools you will need to create t-shirt designs.
• How to move seamlessly between Photoshop, Illustrator, and pencil & paper so your designs come out as good or better than you had initially imagined
• Type layout using Adobe Typekit fonts
• How to create your own custom Photoshop brushes to quickly add color and texture to your designs
• How to incorporate hand-drawn effects into a computer-based design
• How to make sure your graphic is screen printed with the exact ink colors, sizing, and placement that you want
• Printing with sublimation and DTG (direct-to-garment) methods
• Avoiding common mistakes so your t-shirts come back printed exactly as designed

As a bonus you will also receive:

• The Photoshop watercolor brushes made in the workshop
• All 3 colorways of the finished “South Shore” design created (Photoshop format)
•  2 bonus lectures showing methods to create “index” and “halftone” screen printing color separations in Photoshop and Illustrator without the need for any extra software
• Downloadable files for the two color separation methods demonstrated in the workshop

• T Shirt Design Workshop Part 2 Intro
• Tools and Materials
• Create a Project
• Inspiration & Pinterest
• 05 Organizing Inspiration
• Thumbnail Sketching
• Creating Basic Shapes in Illustrator
• Laying Out Type
• Using Typekit
• Alternate Layouts
• Refine the Design
• Pixels to Paper
• Drawing Outlines
• Watercolor Pencil
• Photoshop
• Refine on Paper
• Back Into Photoshop
• Make a Watercolor Brush
• Painting with Photoshop Brushes
• Colorways
• Sizing Your Graphic Part 1
• Sizing Your Graphic Part 2
• Pantone Colors for Screenprinting
• Setting up a Spec Sheet
• Optional Lesson: Color Seps 02 Index Separations
• Optional Lesson: Color Seps 01 Halftone Separations
• Sending Designs to Print
• Printed T Shirts Arrive
• Wrap Up Workshop 02