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I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips on what to include for a "club friendly" shirt. There's a big club night opening in one of the big (UK) cities on Saturday night and I've been asked to design some shirts for clients but there are several problems.
1) There has been no criteria or preference on designs by the clients aside from that it has to be a white crew neck shirt.
2) I'm not sure what would pass as "smart" in terms of t-shirts.
3) I'm not sure what would pass as "smart" by club standards.
I use transfer prints so I'm trying to conjure up something spectacular that looks smart at the same time.
I'm a rank amateur when it comes to this so it's a bit hard to determine what would be considered smart and where to go. Pretty amateur that I'm asking on a t-shirt forum but hey, I'm stuck so help would be appreciated.
Honestly its not amateur to ask for help. That shows that you are intelligent. Better safe then sorry!
What kind of club is it?
Who will be wearing the shirts? (Age groups)
What kind of music is played there?
Is it a party party? Or a business type thing? (I mean are they gunna be dancing, or sitting around talking?)
What is the clubs name?
Give us any other pertinent information you can think of then we can try and help you out a little better.
As far as I know it's a student nightclub so it'll be an 18-25 age group. I don't know what type of music they'll be playing but given the location of the club I'd presume that it'll be dance/electro music. The idea is to wear them for this opening night and then for future nights out.
I wanted to copy a design I saw in one of the high street retailers because although it is an eighties style design it looks rather electro. The only problem is that it errs too much on the eighties side
The clients are more close friends and are quite fussy about wearing flamboyant or attention seeking designs so they want something that is eye catching, smart but not over the top.
What about doing a glitter vinyl design, you could go for a fairly light colour on the white t-shirt or i have seen a clear vinyl with glitter in it. I don't think you have a cutter but it would not be hard for someone to do it for you.
This is what i mean, they look eyecatching but modern high street style that can be worn anytime.
First one is glitter and second is sparkle.
Lee
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trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Glitter is an element of design that they specified they don't want. The idea was something smart yet understated. It's quite dificult to know what to do given the limited information and specification I've been given. I've had an idea of incorporating my trademark design but I'm not sure how it would work. I've considered using the outline of it but I'm not sure where to go with it given the specifications set out.
You will spend far too long on this project unless you get detailed information off the customer.
We could all sit for hours thinking about what they would want, when you just need to ask them and get them to commit at least to a few basic ideas or styles.
Are you charging for your time?
How much are you charging them for the t-shirts. Is it worth it?
Are transfers what they want if they are to be used more than a few times?
Trust me, i have spent many hours wondering what the customer would want, designing something and then being told it's not what they had in mind.
You may have a different opinion on whats eyecatching or smart or understated.
You need more details or you will be so stressed out trying to think of something, it's not worth it.
Lee
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trying to help, sometimes i don't!
I've been speaking to them on the phone just now and they said I quote "Something that can be worn in clubs more than once. Nothing too flamboyant, overstated or arrogant (WTF??) and something that doesn't make us look like divies". That's all the info I was given. Only being paid for doing the design. I don't mind spending time on it but it's hard trying to come up with something for such a high demand event.
So they havn't given you any idea what they want in the design?
What city is it, you could incorporate something that's famous about the city, for example a Liverbird if it was liverpool etc.
How many designs to they want to see?
If you are getting paid for the design will they only pay you if they like the one you do, if not you will spend a long time designing for nothing.
To wear it more than once in clubs i would say it needs to be vinyl or screen printed so limit your colours because that will increase the cost to produce.
How many do they need and who is doing the t-shirts?
Lee
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trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Iwould incorporate the name of the club into the design, depending on the crown i would have it on maybe a scroll type thing or just in really cool lettering.
Not flambuoyant means simple, no glitter, no foil, no discharge.
So it should be somethin like your main logo, with the theme of the club incorporated into it.
If they are going to leave it so open then make it worth yourwhile with your logo standing out in it, unless you dont want them representing your logo or think it isnt the right thing to do.
Do something that will be beneficial to yourself. People at bars always love crests too, shield crests with a mug of ale on it and something else, simple easy to do always popular for the bar scene.
If it is techno/electro and you cannot do anything flambuoyant that is tough......nail down what they want or move on if it is taking way to much time.
It's funny you mention Liverpool as that's where the club is going to be. The guys I'm helping out are from Manchester so throwing a Liver bird on the shirt wouldn't be ideal plus that emblem is associated with the city's football team so it wouldn't be appropriate for a night out.
I'm looking around on Google Images for anything associated with Electro and club wear and trying to incorporate it into a design. It's hard to know what to do though given the limited specification. I'm scouting around some of the high street stores as well to see what they're selling.
The name of the club and its tag line or what it represents is the key element. Your logo has probably zero to do with what they want to represent. Simplicity is the thing...work on the name with fonts first. You can look for music elements like scales, notes, staff, records, speakers etc but they will incorporate later. Get the name and the tag line down first.
If the owners and staff are going to wear the gear make the shirts all one color and the prints the same. Logo on the back and on the front something simple like STAFF etc. If they want to also sell shirts you can create variations of colors with the fronts saying VIP, REGULAR, LOCAL ETC. with the club logo on back. Basically the staff shirts are all the same and the shirts for purchase are a different color. One color shirt for each variation and you might only want a VIP variation.
I should've mentioned that the guys I'm designing the tops for aren't bar staff or anything to do with the club. They're just going along as they've been invited to the opening. I've been looking about and I've found this in one of the high street shops in the UK. I'd like to do something like this as in not too fancy but not to difficult to do.
I'm doing it by transfer print as it's easy to do and the only accessible option to me at the moment as I don't have a printer or the equipment for screen or vinyl printing.
Designing "club friendly" t-shirts 
