5 Easy Steps to Designing Your Own Sweatshirt
By LogoSportswear | Updated on November 26, 2023
When your employees wear personalized company sweatshirts at work or during company events, it helps distinguish your business from other delegates, and it speaks about your choice of style as well. However, not everyone is an apparel designer, so where does one start when they want to create the best sweatshirt for their brand? These five easy steps will guide anyone on how to design a sweatshirt or hoodie.
1. Choose the right sweatshirt style.
Before anything else, consider the environment where your employees will be wearing the sweatshirts or hoodies. Will they be out and about and possibly be exposed to rain and snow? If your answer is yes, look into custom hooded sweatshirt styles. Meanwhile, crew neck sweatshirts are best worn in chillier weather, and they can be worn whether they will be spending time indoors or outdoors. If you're designing a sweatshirt that they will wear to competitions, company sports events, or while doing active field work, check out the sweat-wicking sweatshirts or outdoor-oriented styles from brands like Sport-Tek and Carhartt.
2. Pick a color.
Once you've selected the best style, choose the right color of your sweatshirt. We've made several colors available so you can choose the one that matches your brand best. Whether it's a sweatshirt people wear to work or while representing the company outside the workplace, stick to your brand's primary colors or any of the ones listed in your brand guidelines. The color of your logo or text should also complement the sweatshirt itself. You may refer to the color wheel to identify which colors complement and contrast one another, and then apply the color theory principles to your own design.
3. Select a decoration option.
At LogoSportswear, you can find several decoration or customization options for different sweatshirt styles including digital printing and embroidery. The decoration choices usually depend on the fabric your choice of sweatshirt is made of. Sweatshirts made of cotton/polyester blends can be customized using embroidery or digital printing. Sweats woven using thinner materials are better suited for screen printing as they may not sustain the damage from embroidering needles. Screenprinting is ideal if your logo has one or two colors and if you are ordering large quantities. Embroidery is great for stitching in small logos, while direct-to-garment printing works best for complex designs with multiple colors.
You will find on the product page of your chosen sweatshirt or hoodie the recommended decoration styles for the fabric so you can pick the best one for your custom apparel. For more information, check out this article on the pros and cons of the different customization options.
4. Use a design template, upload your own artwork's file, or create one online.
Not sure what design to put on your custom sweatshirt? You can edit these design templates with your company name, logo, or event title. You can use programs like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to modify the templates and then upload design file to the site when you're ready to print. We accept files in AI, EPS, SVG, CDR, PDF, PSD, PNG, JPG, JPEG, TIF, BMP, and GIF formats.
If you're keen on starting from scratch but aren't used to editing software, you can use the LogoSportswear Online Designer Tool for free. With this tool, you can add text, upload images, and change the fonts. Remember to use legible fonts so that they can be readable even from a distance. For more information on font choices, check out this article on how to select the correct font.
5. Save the design and add it to your cart.
If you're done completing your excellent sweatshirt design on the Online Designer Tool, click Save and then choose "Add to Cart" on the pop-up window. Once you've added it to your cart, another pop-up window will appear to finalize the total order quantity and the number of pieces per size. You can also get group discounts because the larger your order, the less you spend on every custom sweatshirt.
We strongly suggest that you review the artwork guidelines to check if your file follows our recommended specs. These guidelines ensure your image comes out of the highest quality and according to your expectations.
Finalize Your Custom Sweatshirt Design With LogoSportswear
You can easily design your own custom apparel by following these five easy steps. Next thing you know, you have a hoodie or sweatshirt design that your employees will be excited to wear.