Start your cheer year off right by coming up with a killer cheerleading T-shirt design. T-shirts can facilitate team building and unity, while really defining who you are as a team. Get the whole team together for a fun night of planning, so that everyone's on board for this year's tees.
Fundamentals for Cheerleading T-shirt Design
You probably have a million T-shirts in your drawer signifying a million different activities, events and teams. You want this year's shirt to really stick out. In order to do that, you have to consider:
T-shirt style
You can go with the traditional tee, or you can opt for capped sleeves, tank top, spaghetti strap or a specialty tee with ruched sides.
T-shirt color
White tee shirts usually cost the least, but if you're able to pay a little more per shirt, you can choose colors as varied as the rainbow. If you want to make a statement, most T-shirt companies also offer camouflaged or tie-dye options.
T-shirt fabric
While 100 percent cotton shirts are most common, cotton-polyester blends can cut down on wrinkling and shrinking. Ask the company you're using whether they're running any specials or if they suggest a particular blend for your purposes.
Text color and style
You can't choose your text color until after you've chosen your T-shirt color. To make the text color pop, you need to choose an option that contrasts sharply with the T-shirt. For instance, with a dark T-shirt, you would want to choose a pale text color, and with a light T-shirt, you're better off with a dark text color. In most cases, a plain block text font works best, but if you want to add a quote or a slogan to one side, consider using a smaller, narrow font, or even opt for italics or script.
Extras
You can always personalize your shirts to give them extra pizzazz. You could add last names, nicknames or the team name to the back of the shirt. Alternately, you could get together as a team and decorate the shirts. For instance, you could cut fringe around the bottom of the shirt or around the sleeves, string beads in your team colors onto the fringe and tie at the bottom. You could also create interesting seams by punching holes up and down the sides of the shirts, then use colorful ribbon to "lace" the sides together, stringing the ribbon just like you lace up your shoe.
Purpose
You probably have lots of reasons for cheerleading T-shirt design. Not only do you need to develop a team shirt, you may want to design a shirt for your homecoming pep rally, for a special competition or as a fundraising project. A fundraising T-shirt design will probably need to look a lot more conservative than the one you design for your team.
Team Slogan
If you have a slogan that defines your team, you may want parts of your T-shirt design to incorporate your slogan. For instance, if your slogan is "Fly Like Monkeys", you could include a picture of a monkey or a banana. Or, you could choose a brown shirt, signifying the color of a monkey. In either case, you aren't obviously including your slogan, but you are choosing something that represents your slogan.
Other T-Shirt Design Ideas
Keep It Classy
Sometimes the best tees are the simplest tees. A black shirt with "Cheer Warriors" in gold across the chest might stand out more than an overly-decorative shirt.
Consider Options
Some tee shirt companies offer specialty ink, like glitter or glow-in-the-dark. If it defines your team, glitter ink can provide you with a fun option. If you're planning a special black-out gym pep rally, or a half-time show with the lights turned down, glow-in-the-dark ink can provide an especially unexpected statement to the crowd.
Regardless of the T-shirt design you choose, you'll have a year full of fun and excitement in front of you, so keep your shirt and treasure the memories you'll create while wearing it.
