From Design Lab to Final T-shirt
The client has artwork and is simple with their request
These clients ranged from agencies to corporations where the artwork is usually done in house; the only wrench in the process can be solidifying Pantones for screen printing. Most art departments are pretty aware of the process, during the process some explaining is much needed. When there are 8-10 colors we often try to get companies to use DTG printing as opposed to screen printing. For the designing aspect, this is the easiest process.
Creating/Editing The Artwork
First Step of Custom Order
2. The client has an idea of what they want, they require extra help with the creative process; they tend to be communicative and have feedback. There is one decision-maker for this.
In this instance, the buyer has their logo mark or design and has a solid idea of what they want. Most times they will want to see mockups on different colored t-shirts and perhaps change some of the ink colors, or make some small tweaks, but its a straight-forward process and the time to solidify a design and get approval is relatively short.
Creating Mockups
Creating a visual for how the Designs will look on different shirts
3. Client has a specific event/purpose; design from scratch and get feedback on the design and creative process throughout.
Clients of all sorts will come to us for help with a designing something from scratch. In this instance, we ask for some inspiration or something we can use for reference. For our designers at GT, the more detail and information the better. It takes great attention to detail and requires ample time to create something from scratch. At Global Threads we created thousands of designs our customers love. The key is getting as much info as possible at the forefront. Some clients/buyers readily provide that information while others can be quite busy and feel as though we ask too many questions. From our perspective as well as the client's perspective, the final design on the t-shirt comes out best when we have the most information and open dialogue throughout the process. Usually, there are 1-2 people we will correspond with and a single decision-maker with a credit card.
Final Approved Product
The Client Approves the Final Product to be sent to the Print Shop
4. Client has no solid agenda or idea for us to work with; no clear direction involving a lot of people resulting in the creative process being convoluted.
We call this having “Too many cooks in the kitchen” dilemma. Several different departments have differing views and it seemingly feels like your working on this design forever. Just when you think you have reached the finish line, you end up starting over from scratch. This can be frustrating because this could become a great client, or you could be doing all this work and the client decides to ax the project altogether. Operating on a careful premise of not doing too much work unless you know the company will be compensated is a good move. In my experience, small businesses can stretch you thin so it's important to be upfront that design is valuable service and costs money.
Happy customers in a carefully crafted design and production process.