T-shirt design is becoming more and more competitive, with top illustrators and graphic designers leading the way. Here we pick ten of our favourite T-shirt designs to inspire you.
Thanks to the web, designers are now able to print and sell their designs to a wider audience.
Consequently, independent T-shirt design has become increasingly popular over the past few years as designers and illustrators are enticed by this method of showcasing their work.
Here, we've selected ten of our favourite designs from around the web. We hope they inspire you and we'd love to hear about your favourite T-shirt designs in the comments!
T-shirt design: Design duo TADO created this Eastern inspired tee
SOYU is a T-shirt design agency with a difference. Focusing on Eastern culture, it incorporates quotes, proverbs and age-old wisdom into each of its T-shirt designs.
They called upon their favourite artists to bring you their favourite pieces of wisdom from a more traditional time. This T-shirt design was crafted by Creative Bloq favourites TADO.
T-shirt design: Any user can submit their T-shirt design for consideration
Most of you will already know about Threadless but for those that don't, users can submit T-shirt designs to the site, which are then voted on for a seven-day period by other users in the community.
Once the scoring period has ended, the T-shirt design receives a score from 0 to 5. This is used as a gauge by Threadless to decide what gets made into a tee! This top scoring tee was designed by Phil Jones.
T-shirt design: Lazy Oaf was set up in 2001 from a market stall and is now stocked worldwide
Lazy Oaf is a creative label currently based in East London. Started by Gemma Shiel back in 2001 with hand screen printed tees, its collections are now stocked in over 150 outlets worldwide.
With this 'Big Tongue Slob' T-shirt design you can also zip the tongue back into a pocket in case you don't feel like getting your tongue out.
T-shirt design: My Yard was set up by graphic designers Jake Phillips and Tim Chapman
My Yard are graphic design duo Jake Phillips and Tim Chapman. With an eye for fashion and design, they came together to produce their own designs as well as featuring some local artists and illustrators.
This 'Wild Card' T-shirt design was from their A/W collection and still proves popular with customers. Featuring Disney-style hands with intricate illustration, it's a design win.
T-shirt design: Legendary tattoo and graffiti artist Mike Giant is behind the original artwork
Deeply rooted in skateboard, graffiti, and tattoo culture, REBEL8’s core purpose is to showcase its trademark lifestyle through unique products.
Most graphics within the REBEL8 product line are hand illustrated, with no computer generated enhancements or manipulations. The designer behind the original artwork at REBEL8 is the legendary tattoo and graffiti artist Mike Giant.
T-shirt design: Folk won a Scottish Fashion Award back in 2011
Established back in 2001 by Cathal McAteer, Folk has one simple ethos for its designs. Fed up of people buying tees just for the branding, they make sure each design is well balanced and subtle.
Since receiving a prestigious Scottish Fashion Awards nod in 2011, there are now five stores, including one in Munich, while the label is stocked in such prestigious outlets as Liberty, Coggles in York and Goodstead in Edinburgh.
T-shirt design: Donuts also exhibits local artists and illustrators
Donuts is an independent store and exhibition space based in the centre of Bristol. Stocking brands such as Norse projects, Wood Wood and Rockwell, the store strives to support independent labels.
They also regularly host exhibition evenings showcasing local artists, illustrators and designers. This design, which features illustrations of popular R&B songs was created by Daddison and printed by Uno One.
T-shirt design: No Guts No Glory was recently featured in Computer Arts magazine
NO GUTS NO GLORY is a community based collective of creative people from around the UK, established in November 2009 by Nathan Blaker. Their designs are hand-screenprinted by Get a Grip who specialise in using organic inks.
This Snakeman T-shirt design was crafted by Jack Teagle and is on a limited run of two limited editions of 50.
T-shirt design: Christopher David Ryan started selling prints in 2004
Based in Portland, Maine Christopher David Ryan started selling self-designed prints in 2004. He's kept busy with illustration and graphic design work, as part of studio More & Co and his solo projects.
This 'Piece of Mind' T-shirt design is unfortunately now sold out but we loved it so much that we just had to share it with you.
T-shirt design: Antonio only prints his T-shirt designs in batches of 30-40
Spanish artist Antonio Ladrillo child-like style and infectiously bold designs have earned him a reputation in T-shirt design. It's a shame then, that his tees only have a limited print run of 30-40.
Quality is his main concern, so each colour on each print has two to three coats. This 'Animal Head' T-shirt design also comes in dog form.
That's it for now! Please share your favourite T-shirt designs in the comments box below.
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