[viacombusta]

Hi. I just signed up for the site. It seems like a great resource. I've been interested in t-shirts forever. I've always searched hundreds of site to find just the right shirt. I have too many bookmarked to count. I've always loved getting a shirt I love and wearing it the first time and having people comment and ask where I got it.

I have a couple questions and would appreciate any info that you guys have.

I have zero design talent. I can't draw or use Photoshop, but I have a lot of ideas and would love to start a t-shirt company and print my own stuff. I took a screenprinting class in high school but that's the extent of my experience. How realistic is it to try to start a business by exclusively hiring artists?

What resources would you recommend to a beginner to find a starting point? I've been looking at the "Fuel For Design" eBook and thinking about buying it. Would you recommend it or another avenue?

Thanks in advance.

 

[GraphicsFactory]

Welcome to The T-Shirt Forums!

Like any business, hard work and ideas are what make success. Don't sell yourself short. You may be more talented than you think. You may lack technical knowledge and skill right now, but both come with experience. If you are more into marketing, than hire artists and printers.

Don't get caught-up into using any particular software or computer. Photoshop is great, but can take a long time to learn and can be expensive. You may also look at Illustrator. But, again expensive and could take a long time to learn. There is other software too. CorelDraw is sold as a suite, meaning you get both a vector and paint program (bitmap like Photoshop) in one package. Costs much less than Adobe products, but very powerful. GIMP (like Photoshop) is free and so is InkScape (like Illustrator). Both are great tools, and fairly easy to use. I am a professional illustrator, and my tool of choice is Xara Xtreme.

Good luck,
Mike

 

[SHIROINEKO]

It's good that you have some basic skill.

Well, it's possible to hire artists to design for your company but it'd be better if you can do it on your own.