Spring into color this Easter

It's March and that means the spring season is in full swing and the time for bright colors, budding flowers and Easter egg hunts! Get ready for jellybeans, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps because the Easter bunny is bringing baskets of sweets and surprises! Spring is a time of renewal and growth, the weather begins to change and sleeping plants begin to blossom as the drab winter gray is awakened with vibrant colors. We have a plethora of options for bright colored shirts and numerous options for ink as well. Check out our previous blog post for some general ideas on matching up colors.

Pick from over forty colors when choosing the Hanes Beefy T-shirt, or try out some nice pastel color options from American Apparel. Some of the most popular Easter colors are light blue, purple, pink, and light yellow. Once you have picked a great color base for a shirt, check out our clip art for some bunnies, eggs, and religious icons to create your shirt masterpiece. Spring is all about growth so try sporting a color that is a little your of your comfort zone and see how it feels, you might be pleasantly surprised how you look in an orange, purple, or yellow shirt...be bold!

Remember to get creative with color this spring when you create a custom shirt. Easter is a great time to celebrate renewal and growth with family and friends so be bright with color and remember to share the jellybeans!

T-Shirt Color Guide

There are several key factors that make for memorable T-shirt designs. Some top elements to keep in mind include interesting artwork, a catchy or funny saying, and most importantly great color selection. When you are creating a custom T-shirt you may be tempted to splash all your favorite colors onto the design. Green shirt, red letters, purple artwork, more orange letters... it doesn't take long for any design to become a mess of a rainbow when you are wildly adding colors for every new addition. Unfocused color selection not only looks bad, but it can run up production cost quickly without being a benefit to the overall design aesthetic. Lets take a quick look at how to effectively select colors.

You may remember learning the color wheel in art class. One of the simplest ways to to create contrast is to use colors that are opposite each other on the wheel. This can be especially helpful when you have words that you want to stand out. If there is too little contrast it will be hard for people to read your shirt, especially from a distance.

     

You can see that the shirt on the left has much more dynamic contrast than the shirt on the right. Also keep in mind that dark colors such as maroon and royal blue may look decent on a black shirt when working in the Design Studio, however the final printed result might appear darker than it first looked when designing on a vibrant computer screen.

When working in our design studio you will able to choose from thirty different ink colors. Although this is often more than enough choice for most orders we know that sometimes there might be a specific color you have in mind that is not listed. Send us a message in the design notes and we will work to see if we can get your specific color mixed up. The easiest way to communicate what color you want is to use the Pantone color match system (PMS).

Pantone color match is a universal system that assigns numbers to colors so that there is a shared consensus between designers on how to match up colors. For example if you tell us you want Pantone 15-5519, then we know you are talking about a specific color of turquoise. This can be especially important for a color shade like turquoise because there are several combinations of blue and green. We can also work to use special T-shirt inks such as neon colors, glitter ink, and even glow in the dark ink!

Having lots of colors can make your shirt a hit, just make sure that you are choosing colors that will appropriately compliment and contrast each other for the best effect. Have fun designing custom T-shirts!

Top O' the Mornin to You! St. Patty's Shirts

As February comes to a close the season of spring will soon be upon us. The official first day of spring for 2013 will be on March 20, but before we get to this year's vernal equinox we have one more holiday to celebrate. It's our favorite green holiday, St. Patricks day! There is much speculation on the true history of the famous Irish cleric. He left behind only a few letters after his death on March 17 460 A.D. Irish legends have persisted such as St. Patrick banishing all the snakes from Ireland and his walking stick growing in to an ash tree upon thrusting it into the Earth. Remembrance of the life and work of St. Patrick has grown into a festive holiday in the United States, and now March 17 is a holiday where everyone can celebrate in jovial Irish fashion! We have some custom T-shirts that will put a smile on your face and have you looking great in glorious green.

     

Of course St. Patrick's day wouldn't be complete without bagpipes, beer and corned beef so create a shirt that shows off your love for any of these Irish favorites. Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's day, so grab some friends, pour a cold one and get out and have some fun! And since you will be appropriately dressed in green with these custom St. Patrick's day shirts be sure to pinch anyone who has failed to wear the festive color!

     

Have fun and be safe! May the luck of the Irish be with you!

DesignAShirt Love Story Winner

We have been overjoyed by the positive responses to our DesignAShirt Love Story contest. Thank you to everyone who has participated and we are very humbled by all the kind words and heartwarming stories. Out of our seven finalists, we had two outstanding contestants who went above and beyond our expectations. On this very special Valentine's Day we are proud to announce that we will be awarding two winners with our top prize of an iPad mini. Congratulations to Ashley Kirk Malone and Hunter Tittle.

And because we want everyone to feel the love today, our other 5 finalists will be receiving a $50 gift code to use toward a custom t-shirt order, and ALL of our Facebook fans will receive a $10 off discount code

Anyone who has "Liked" our Facebook page can use the Code: DASLOVE and receive $10 off an order. This expires at the end of February. Just our way of saying we love you ALL!!!

Family Reunion Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our family reunion blog. Last time we talked about picking the right place to hold the reunion as well as creating a dynamic theme. We have a few more tips about the importance of planning and how to create some great . The hardest part of the family reunion is the planning stage. Once the whole family is in one place it is easy for the good times to roll. If there is sufficient preparation the reunion will foster family interactions that will naturally unfold into harmonious bliss. If the reunion is ill conceived and unfocused there is the possibility of discontentedness and bickering. Of course it depends on what your family is like, but if the reunion is focused from one event to the next each family member will feel encourage to participate and stick to a schedule. Try creating a custom T-shirt with the schedule of main events on the back so everyone will be on time for each gathering. It is also a great way to look back and remember every fun part of the reunion.

     

Of course all this planning must come from a very special and dedicated person. If you have taken it upon yourself to be this extraordinary coordinator, we think you deserve to have a special shirt just for you that will signify all your awesome party planning prowess!

     

Adding names and numbers to the back is a great way to personalize each shirt and make everyone stand out. This can be especially helpful if you have a large family or a lot of little ones that are always running around. If your family has funny nicknames for each other its a great idea to put them on the shirt to encourage family members to strike up a conversation about the nickname's origin.

Preparation goes a long way in creating any successful event, so start planning early. And if you are feeling overwhelmed why not take a break from the hotel booking and event scheduling and have fun creating a custom family reunion shirt! Coordinating can be hard work but just remember that all the planning will pay off when you see the happiness and smiles at the reunion. We truly hope you enjoy creating a memorable custom T-shirt and can't wait to see all the great family reunion T-shirt photos in our Photo Contest!