Giving away promotional items is obviously one of the best marketing tactics around. Promotional items are cost effective. Cheap custom tee shirts and screen printed totes each generate 200 and 1,000 brand impressions per advertising dollar, respectively. Plus, they have a huge impact. In one study, the vast majority (73.5%) of respondents said that they could remember the name of a brand who’d given them cheap custom tees better than a brand they’d seen advertised on TV.

Unfortunately, success is not guaranteed. If a custom tee isn’t designed well, no one is going to wear it. How then can it generate brand exposures if it’s wadded up in the back of someone’s drawer?

Instead of letting that catastrophe happen, use these tips to design great looking custom tees.

Consider the Colors.

Color is incredibly important. Pairing two or more colors that don’t work well with each other could potentially doom a custom tee from the start. Instead, it’s best to go one of three routes. First, you can use complementary colors, like red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple. Second, you could pair warm colors together, or cool colors together. Third, you could pair any color with white.

Consider Logo Placement.

If you give away custom tees to market your business, you’re going to have to make sure people see your logo. Consider putting it nice and big in one of three spots. First, you can put it right smack in the middle of the custom tee’s chest, which is where most companies put logos. Second, you could put it on the back, where there’s more room for an even bigger logo. Third, you could put a smaller logo on the breast of the custom tee, which won’t be able to be seen from far away, but is far more professional-looking.

Consider the Font.

If you want people to remember your company’s name, you’re going to have make it so people can read it. Choose a quality font that’s both legible and artistic. A fancy, cursive font is hard to read, while a childish looking font will make a bad impression. Instead, stick to the classics, like Arial, Verdana, or Times New Roman.

Though it’s not hard to design a shirt, it does take a little bit of though. If you have any questions about designing custom shirts, feel free to ask in the comments.

You don’t have to think too hard to come up with a couple good reasons why so many brands give away cheap custom tee shirts to promote their companies.

First of all, it works. Custom tees can produce 200 impressions per advertising dollar, which is the equivalent of 200,000 people seeing your brand for the first time for just $1,000. Plus, a survey revealed that nearly three out of four (73.5%) respondents stated that custom tees were more effective than TV advertising.

Second of all, people love tee shirts. About 95% of American wear them, and nine in 10 Americans own a tee shirt that they refuse to throw away because of its sentimental value.

Except, that doesn’t mean that they’re definitely going to wear your custom tees. It just means that they like them.

If you want to turn your brand’s loyal followers into walking billboards, you’re going to have to make custom tees that they want to wear, which can be a little tricky for someone who doesn’t have any fashion or graphic design knowledge.

Luckily, you can take a couple steps that will help. Here’s what you need to do.

Choose a High-Quality Shirt Material.

The thing about about cheap custom tees is that they’re, well, cheap, which to many companies is a good thing. They’re a cost-effective way to market a brand. However, you get out what you put in, and many times cheap custom tees wind up looking and feeling, well, cheap, and who wants to wear a cheap shirt?

Instead of buying a few hundred cheap custom tees, it’s better to buy only a couple hundred higher-quality shirts. Although this means that you won’t get your branded logo on as many people’s backs, it does mean that they’re more likely to wear the shirt, which is the entire point, right? What good would it be for 300 people to have your custom tees and never wear them? It’s much better to give 200 out, and have each one wear them.

Choose a High-Quality Ink.

You also have to consider the ink that your shirt printing service uses. Cheap ink will fade and peel away after only a couple washes, which obviously causes a couple problems. First of all, it means that the shirt will no longer represent your brand. No one will be able to see your brand’s logo if it’s not there anymore. Secondly, it also makes people less likely to wear the shirt, because, let’s face it, who’s going to want to wear a shirt that looks all faded and worn out, even if it’s relatively new?

If you want people to wear your shirts, you need to make shirts people want to wear. It’s that simple. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

People love wearing tee shirts. Like, really love wearing them. In fact, about 95% of Americans wear tee shirts, and 89% of them will wear a tee shirt at least once a week.

Because people love to wear tee shirts, companies have learned it’s a good idea to give away branded, custom tees bearing the company’s name and logo. In one recent study, about 48% of consumers had received a promotional, custom tee in the past 12 months. Not only is it a great way to engage with consumers, it also turns them into walking billboards — a genuine win-win for everyone.

However, that doesn’t guarantee that they’re going to wear the cheap custom tee shirts you’ve made to promote your business. People may love tee shirts, but that doesn’t mean they love every tee shirt.

If you want people to wear your cheap custom tees, you’re going to have to design a shirt that they’d want to wear. Here are a few tips to help.

Quality Material.

One of the main reasons companies like the idea of giving away custom tees is because it’s cheap. It’s a very cost efficient way to get a brand name out there. Don’t be too cheap, though. If you are, you’ll make shirts that get worn once, and that’s it. What’s the point of even making them? Instead, companies are better off spending a dollar or two more on the material quality of their custom tees, even if that means having to make fewer custom tees. That way, people will at least wear them out rather than leaving them in the back of their drawer.

Quality Design.

If you’re going to make custom tees that people would actually want to wear, you’re going to have to come up with a design that people dig. Consider hiring a freelance graphic designer to come up with something. They won’t charge you all that much for something simple, and you can reuse the design again. A good graphic design is a worthy investment.

Quality Ink.

The ink used when making custom printed shirts might not seem like all that big of a deal, but cheap ink cracks, fades, and peels. In other words, it won’t last long. Why make promotional tees that only promote your brand for a couple washes? Make sure you choose a screen printing service that only uses quality inks.

The key to designing awesome custom tees is to keep the end consumer in mind. If you want people to wear your shirts, you need to design a shirt they’d want to wear. It’s really that simple. If you have any questions, feel free to share in the comments.

Cheap custom tee shirts are excellent promotional tools. It’s why you see so many companies just handing out and giving away the custom tees they paid good money for for free at conventions and meetups. They turn anyone who wears them into walking billboards, while also increasing brand awareness and brand loyalty.

That’s what they can do, though, not what they will do. In order to receive these benefits, people have to actually wear the custom tee first. To get people to sport your company’s logo and name on their apparel, you need to design your custom tees well. Here are a few tips to help.

Keep It Simple.

In 1960, the U.S. Navy noted a design principle known as the KISS principle. The acronym stood for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Essentially, it means that systems work best if they’re kept simple. Believe it or not, this is also true for your custom tees. The simpler the graphic and the design, the more elegant and professional it’ll look. You don’t need to have big, complicated, full color logos. A simple, one color graphic or logo will do just fine.

Keep It Succinct.

Just as your design needs to be minimalist, so too should your custom tee’s text. The briefer the message, the more likely people are to read it all, and absorb its meaning. Though boiling a message down to just a few words may seem difficult, it’s more than possible. American author Ernest Hemingway was able to tell entire stories in just six words. Get to the heart of what you want to say, and just say it. Try not to put more than 10 words of text on your custom tee.

Keep It Conventional.

Sometimes, it pays to take risks. An unconventional looking custom tee is sure to catch more people’s eyes, but it’s also less likely to be worn. If you choose to put the meat of your shirt somewhere other than on the chest or the back, people aren’t going to want to wear it as much. If they don’t wear you customized shirts, then no one is going to get to see your business’s logo, slogan, or contact info. Basically, an unconventionally designed custom tee is counter intuitive to your purposes. Instead, put your design where it would be expected to go.

Designing a promotional tee can seem tricky, but it’s not that hard when you keep these principles in mind. Just keep it simple, succinct, and conventional, and people will definitely throw your shirt on.

If you have any questions or other design tips, feel free to share in the comments.