Building an Apparel Brand: How I Make My Designs

Kyle
Kyle
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

There are only a handful of things I’m even halfway decent at in life.

  • Playing drums
  • Being sarcastic
  • Ice hockey
  • Driving in the snow

Notice that “graphic design” was not on the list. You’ll see also that “writing” wasn’t there either yet here we are. Sometimes you have to just do the thing before you actually know how to do it.

I honestly admire anyone who runs a successful apparel brand that actually creates all their own designs. It seems like I might be the only one who doesn’t know how to use Adobe Illustrator. Although I practiced a bit when I downloaded the free trial I found it much easier to log in to good ol’ Fiverr and find someone to bring my ideas to life.

Sure, it cost me about 20 Canadian dollars to get a very simple graphic made but what it didn’t cost me was a ton of time. I’m a big fan of using my time efficiently.

A couple days ago, however, I went on a real design bender that proved to be very productive and fulfilling and it didn’t cost me a dime. For a while now I’ve been trying to work out an idea for the logo of my brand. Every day I’d spend a bit of time trying to sketch out different versions of it. This is all well and fine except for the fact that I really can’t draw for shit. See the photo at the top of this post? That’s what happened when I attempted to sketch my own finger. And of course the solution to not being able to draw would be to use a computer program instead. Yeah, no. I barely know how to turn the laptop on.

So what did I do?

Well, I might not be artistic but I can be creative. And resourceful.

Side note: I learned how to be resourceful from my Dad. When I was a kid I used to “help” him work on cars and small engines and what I found was that he would always achieve the desired outcome but it was almost never reached using the original plan. There was always a lot of improvising and outside-the-box thinking going on. It’s been such a valuable skill for me already.

Anyway, since I can’t draw well and am useless on photoshop here’s what I did.

  • First, I sketched out my logo as best as I could with very little detail.
  • Next, I took a photo of the drawing up close with my iPhone.
  • Stay with me here…. I then used the “Markup” feature on the phone to edit the photo I took of the hand drawn logo and I went over it with the drawing tool. I realized I could make straight lines to go over the lines I had drawn. This took FOREVER to accomplish and was a complete pain in the ass because it was all done on a touch screen using my finger and a stylus I found in the junk drawer.
  • I managed to transform a photo of my drawing into a full colour graphic design using this method
  • Next, I printed out the logo onto card stock.
  • I used a straight edge and a box cutter to cut out the logo
  • I coloured it using black and gold Sharpies.
  • Finally I grabbed some blank shirts from the closet, positioned the logo perfectly on the shirts, and took photos of the garments.

I did all of this just to see what it would look like on actual shirts. And you know what? I loved it. It looks fantastic.

That’s how my brain works, people. I’m willing to spend an entire afternoon and evening sitting cross-legged on the floor, sketching and cutting and colouring just to work through an idea. I’m 27 years old by the way. But I had the best time creating and figuring out what I wanted. And now I’ve got the official logo for my brand and I couldn’t be happier.

Now, I’ll still have to find someone who can take my drawings and turn them into files that can be used to print on shirts but like I mentioned in the last post I’m still a couple months away from that.

To finish, I just want to say that I know this process is taking me a lot longer than it takes most people but I’m ok with that for a few reasons:

  • I’m happy taking the time to really hone in on my goals and what I want the brand to represent. I don’t want to put out a product just for the sake of putting something out.
  • I’m becoming extremely skilled at being patient. This is a quality that I know will have long term benefits.
  • To me, the journey is more enjoyable because there ends up being more days in the trenches and I feel that it’s important to build endurance during times that aren’t so exciting or glamorous. When it finally all pops off for real the memories of these days will be even sweeter.

Again, thanks for reading. I encourage you to leave a comment or a question.

Good or bad, I’m cool with whatever!

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