Design Guide

At Dizzyjam we lovingly print every t-shirt individually. In order for your designs to look the very best they can, it's very important that you follow these very simple guidelines. There are two sets of guidelines - depending on which process you choose to make your merch. However, there is one golden rule:

Upload a high quality JPEG or PNG file. We're talking 300dpi images in a size of at least 1000 x 1000 pixels, but no bigger than 12000 x 12000 pixels, and bigger is always better (up to 10MB and 12000 x 12000 pixels). The quality of the image you upload directly affects the quality of the print. If you supply an average quality image, we will still print it - but it just won't look as good, which means your fans will be less happy, and we don't want that.

One Color (Best For: Logos, Large Text, Vector-created Art)

This method is very flexible - it allows your fans to customise both the color of the merch AND the color of the design at any point. When choosing this method, it's best to go for large, bold, vector-style art or large, plain text. Please note that we can't currently accept actual vector files. Make sure it's a dark image on a light background (note: NOT transparent) otherwise our system might not be able to detect it properly. Got a slogan? Use this process.

Multicolor (Best For: Full color designs, Small detail, Shading)

This method allows you to print full color merch. Your fans can still customise the color of the merch (if you want them to), but your design will always remain EXACTLY as you uploaded it. A few guidelines:

• Although it is a full color process, it's still a physical process. We can't replicate the same level of detail and light as a printed sheet of paper, but we can get pretty close. Avoid low contrast (ie don't put small specks of navy in amongst a black area).
• Don't just assume your album cover or a photo of your face will look good on a shirt. Your merch will look better with a simpler design, and square edges can look odd on clothes. If it's been designed for an album, it doesn't necessarily mean it will work on a t-shirt. How many of your favourite t-shirts are a square design in the middle of the chest? A little bit of thought at this stage can mean the difference between selling one or selling hundreds. Think: would you wear your design?
• To make the color of your merch customisable, you may need to make some parts of your image transparent. For example, if you have the word 'BOO' in yellow on a black t-shirt, you'd need to make the insides of the letters transparent so that the black of the shirt can show through. Then, if one of your fans chooses a red t-shirt instead, the red from the shirt will show through instead. You can use an image editor to add transparency to your designs. We recommend Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but there are some free options: you can download GIMP from http://www.gimp.org/ or you can use a free online editor like Splashup http://www.splashup.com/. There's a tutorial on how to add transparencies on our blog here. Or try out this nifty little tool that we recently discovered: http://clippingmagic.com/
• JPEG FILES CANNOT HAVE TRANSPARENT AREAS - You must use the PNG format.