Innovative t-shirt design ideas for your next event

When you’re printing t shirts to represent your brand or business, it’s important to ensure you’re standing out! Whether you’re wearing your personalised t shirts representing your brand at a local event, or you’re giving away t shirts as promotional merchandise at the event – you’ll want to ensure the t shirts are memorable and grab people’s attention.

You should aim to achieve a few of the following points when designing a truly effective t-shirt design:

• Does the t-shirt add value to your product?
• Does the t-shirt create a lasting impression?
• Does the t-shirt help create a strong brand identity?
• Is your t-shirt memorable to your customers?
• Does your t-shirt design help you generate leads or business contacts?

You can get so creative with t-shirt design, so we thought we’d put together some of our favourite innovative t-shirt ideas, that you might like to try out next time you’re investing in promotion merchandise.

Idea 1: Glow in the dark

Glow in the dark inks are actually easy to find now, and featuring a glow-in-the-dark message on your t shirts can be really impactful, fun and surprising. This innovative technique works especially well for businesses or event that function in darker environments, such as nightclubs and bars.

Idea 2: Feature QR codes

QR codes are a fun and unique way of getting customers to engage with your staff. For example, if you’re at a trade show or event, you could have your staff wearing QR code t shirts with a special discount linked to them for when people scan them. It’s a great way to make people smile, a great chance to talk to people / customers, and it’s a memorable experience too!

Idea 3: Use local designers or students

If you’re looking to outsource t-shirt design, why not look to local designers who can create amazing unique designs for you? You could even run a local competition and offer a paid contract for the winning designer! This is innovative and unique and it encourages local talent.

Idea 4: Use visual puzzles or mind-tricks

We’ve seen some great visual games or mind-bending tricks printed on t shirts and we think it’s a really innovative technique for grabbing people’s attention. These work great for events as they’re super eye-catching and definitely draw in lots of attention from passers-by.

Idea 5: Create a dual-purpose t-shirt

Why not give your t-shirt a dual purpose that can spark ideas in your customers? We’ve recently seen a t-shirt that had a ‘notes’ section for when people ran out of space in their notebooks. We’ve also seen t shirts with ‘business card pockets’ for storing all your business contacts. The possibilities are endless here, but the more creative you can be – the better!

Idea 6: Inside-out surprise

The fun inside-out printing design is really fun and surprising. The idea is you print something on the inner side of the t-shirt, so that when the wearer puts the t-shirt over their head, they become a character or animal. For example, printing a tiger or a dinosaur on the inside, and then having the words ‘ask me about my…” on the front. It’s definitely a talking point!

Idea 7: Personal trainer t-shirt

This idea is great for gyms and personal trainers, or even brands who sell fitness equipment or fitness nutrition. The idea is, you get something printed on your t-shirt in almost an identical colour to the material colour. When the wearer is active and sweats on the t-shirt, the message becomes visible. It’s great to put an inspirational quote on the t-shirt, and we’ve found this really surprising and memorable.

Idea 8: Get playful

With branded t shirts it’s tempting to stay safe and go for the more corporate route, but the most effective method of marketing is to get playful and be creative! Don’t be scared to have a sense of humour with your t-shirt design, and be a little daring. Sometimes getting out of your comfort zone is the best way to see impactful results!

Idea 9: Chalkboard t-shirt

A t-shirt that you can draw onto, a chalkboard t-shirt is a fun and innovative way to encourage people to promote your brand message. If you’re ordering t shirts for staff members and you work in a hospitality industry, you could even update chalkboard t shirts to reflect daily specials or offers too!

Idea 10: 3D features