/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>594721
http://www.zazzle.com/custom/tshirts

You're not going to make money doing this, unless people are buying the T-shirts for your custom designs.

>>594724
>http://www.zazzle.com/custom/tshirts
I didn't mean THEIR custom designs

I meant my own that would be done one 3ds max etc.

I really think you should screen print the shirts yourself. Otherwise your profit margins are going to be really slim.

>>594728
that's what I meant

what do I need to do that and what would it cosr

>>594729
Spend a couple of days online reading about screen printing t-shirts and you get the basic idea. You can start with very little initial investments, depending on how crafty you are.I screen print t-shirts for living among other things and I have no official training for the it. I just read about screen printing online. You can keep the costs low by doing lot's of the necessities yourself. I make my own screens and stretch the mesh on them myself. The most expensive investment are the blank shirts. You should start with one color prints and work your way up there.

>>594737
are your shirts washable?

who do you screen print shirts for?

>>594737
I know the basic process

but what minimal equipment do I need?

>>594738
Mostly for my record label.

You do know that basically every t-shirt that has any printing is screen printed? They surely are washable, it's an industrial process, everything depends on the type of ink you are using. Some are more surable than others.

>>594739

If you are doing one color t-shirt you would need: printing screen with your design, screen printing ink for fabric and a squeegee. Thats about it. And an iron to to fasten the design to the shirt.

>>594740
did you have to like officially get a trademark for that?

say I shopped for all the appropriate equipment on amazon what's a good estimate?

>>594741
how are more complex images done?

with like shades, and multiple colors

>>594743

I think you could start with a couple of hundred EUR/dollars. That should be enough for the basic set up. That really depends on the amount of diy you willing to put on the project. That's so fun about screen printing, you can use old picture frames and such and make a ghetto set up for very little investments, but on the other hand you could spend a lot to get a set up to manufacture hundreds of shirts a day. It's fun to work your way up and see what you really can do it yourself, I even made my own squeegees for a couple of euros a piece and they work great.

If by trademark you mean the record label, then yes. It is an official company.

OP you should see if there's a community college or something near you where you can take a screenprinting class for cheap. Then you'll learn the process and you'll also have access to their facilities to get started.

>>594747

Shadows are usually made with halftone dots, but there are other more creative ways to do them. It's not very practical to screenprint photos that are made into halftones. Multiple colors are made with seaprate screens and good alignment. That's the reason why it is good to start with one color designs. Aligning can be pretty difficult. That's why the silk screening stations or carousels are used in designs with multiple screens.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+print+your+design+on+a+t-shirt
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=t-shirt+printing+machine

>>594761
wouldn't it be easier to just screenprint most things from photos? what's the difference in result?

>>594725
You missed my point entirely.
You can already custom print T-shirts online.
There are hundreds of companies that do it.
If you're doing something that requires more than 1 color it would probably be easiest to upload your picture and have them print it.

>>594813
yeah, but that gets expensive...

and you can't be too sure of the quality.

$19.00 for one t shirt?

no profits, and no way amateur tees gonna sell for >$20

you can buy a good iron on transfer paper and print your stuff with a color laser printer in a copy shop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEl5eRqbzfI
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_to_garment_printing
http://alienbunker.com/posts/144/Homemade-DTG-Printer-A3-Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvtURI-u3aQ

>>594814
I'm not shilling for that website. I'm sure OP can find a better deal. The local trophy shop made me and my buddy a couple party T-shirts. It was $25 for the first shirt and $15 for every shirt after that.

I not that familiar with producing large quantities of screen printed shirts. Its seems like the money saved by doing it yourself wouldn't be worth the time it takes. Especially if you're going with more than 1 color.

>>594818
the homemade printing thing seems highly unefficient

but that nigger is pretty good, his shirts look cheap though which makes me suspicious of the quality of the transfer paper method

you can't use transfer paper in a laser printer can you?

>>594834
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZEw-k_R6I
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090405202119AAplRbH
you could try to get the professional transfer papers, print some stuff on some t-shirts and test how much abuse the prints can take
if it works good you could get one of those ironing machines and start your business

>>594813
i clicked on the links you gives, even the add to cart and nothing even happened you cant even do any

>>594721

As a graphic designer you really should be familiar enough with different printing processes not to even consider direct to t-shirt printing and transfer papers. If you want good quality, screen printing is the only way to go.

>>594721
Weird that nobody mentioned this, but you should not print those shirts by yourself. Instead you should make few drawings/pictures/text/whatever you want to be printed on the shirts and think people would pay to get.

After you have some designs contact some of those online t-shirt printing sites and ask if they would like to take your designs in their selection. If yes make the deal so you get 1-2$ for each shirt they sell with your picture on them.

Then just keep track of the fashion and create stuff before anybody else does and make some money.

>>595173
if he wants to make money he can't print them online, unless his designs are so great people would pay $50 for it

>>595196
did you even read that post?