Hey everybody its Wes from Printful.
I'm joined today by Eric and Hannah.
They're on our design services team
and going to go over some of the 2019 design trends.
The first trend we're talking about
has a lot to do with patterning
specifically 80's and 90's influenced patterning.
This type slot into like nostalgia has a lot to do
with big contrasts, intricate shapes,
pastel colors and has a
lot of whimsical subject matter.
I guess for the both of us, if you had grown up
in like the 80's and the 90's,
then you would remember
those old TV shows
where they would have
those really fun title cards.
They had little animations going in and out.
This particular design really
reminds us of things like that.
It has a lot of patterns, a lot of solid
colors and really interesting shapes.
It's a lot about having this bombastic feeling.
It's not subtle, it's not minimal,
it's very in-your-face, but while still being fun.
It looks like it's fun and it looks like it's really energetic.
It almost looks like all the little
bars of ice cream are just floating from the air.
There's a very solid colored background
to help contrast that 3D element of the ice cream.
Then you see those little dotted lines
similar to ants  moving from the puddle to puddle
and making a trail of melted ice cream.
It's really fun.
Do you have any tips or advice on creating patterns?
It's good to start with a single tile
and then work your way out.
Even if you're going to do something that's
supposed to look more scattered and random,
you should always be considering
how one edge goes into the other,
how things mirror across that single tile
and how from there you can extrapolate it out.
It would vary on the pattern itself,
so the tile can be very small
and then you can design
all your elements in there.
If the tile is small, then you have a design
that seems a little bit more filled.
A pattern like in this particular design trend
you can see on a lot of all over products that we offer.
This particular one is our all-over tote bag.
When it comes to creating all-over pattern designs,
we recommend that you start
with the largest possible dimensions.
That would be suitabe for our leggings product.
You can start by making your
pattern as large as possible,
then you can use that very same pattern for
all the other products that we offer,
whether that's an all-over shirt
or an all-over tote bag like this.
For our second trend
we have stylized 3D illustrative text.
A big one for this is
the use of the isometric perspective.
It's an easy, engaging way
to give your font volume and depth.
It also gives you more options
in terms of the composition
and how that fits across
the shirt or whatever the garment is.
We would still put it
within the category of illustrative text.
When you look at it
it has a more geometric feel,
I think it's because of the way that it's placed.
The colors that you see here
have aspects of neon,
that goes back to the similar and nostalgic
80's and 90's retro designs
that we were talking about before.
In elements like the
shadow you'll see dotted texture.
It's called the Benday dot technique.
Even the colors themsleves look like they were placed
and then shifted a little bit.
It's really cool and it gives it
a sense of motion even though it's a static image.
Something like this can translate to a few
different types of products really well.
It definitely looks good on a mug.
It can fit very well without any
background or other types of elements,
so it works we go for this kind of thing.
It works perfectly for those of you
who like tea or coffee,
or just whatever you want more of.
This is a classic setup
that you can do on lots of other product.
This could easily go across the chest
on a T-shirt or wherever you want to put it.
The only thing we'd recommend is that you make sure
that all the colors are within gamut,
so they don't print out in a way
that's completely unpredictable for you.
Our third design trend
is all within the realm of typography.
This is also illustative type.
When you look at it you'll think this is illustrative type,
because it is a hand lettered font.
It's done in an illustrative way,
but it's just a different style
in comparison to the isometric text design.
If you're looking to elevate your font design
you want to think about what
makes sense to your brand.
Do want to go with something 3D, blocky and retro
or are you looking for something more rustic,
intimate, handmade.
For something like this,
it's definitely worth putting the extra time
designing it yourself or finding a designer,
who works well with hand-drawn font and lettering.
It really sets you apart from any basic font
you can just find and download online.
It's going to give your design
a lot more character and make it stand out.
If you take a look at the details of the text
you'll notice that the font was made
to look like it's actually made out of sugar.
You can see the little sugar
granules on the bottom.
We recommend that for something like this
you keep a solid color background behind it.
Especially if this was created in
Photoshop where it's done much more painterly.
All those different elements
where the granules of sugar are,
within the text would be semi-transparent.
It would be wise not to have it
beyond a transparent background.
This will cause the order to be placed on hold.
With that in mind, it would translate really well
to something like our sublimated pillow,
where you can use
any kind of background color you want,
including things that are more
popular right now like this kind of color.
For our fourth design trend it's something
that's referred to as cut up or collage design.
Basically it's when you're
taking something that's photographic
and something that's illustrative or graphic,
and juxtaposing two different things together.
Sometimes we're not even limited to just
using photographic elements and illustrations,
there're so many different
variations of ways you can do this.
It can be photos with photos.
It can be illustrations with illustrations,
just as long as there's a clear contrast,
so it doesn't just look like one photo
and it doesn't look like just one illustration.
It really looks like you
were taking the concept of the contrast
and the juxtaposition of the two elements
and really collaging it together
in a visually appealing way.
Talk me through the process when you created this.
Why you chose what you did
and how it works based on what you just mentioned.
I knew the kind of imagery I wanted,
so then it was a matter of how to fit that together.
What's the emotion you want
to evoke here with the design.
From there it was finding different
reference images and photos to use.
You can take those yourself or
you can find free to use stock image sites.
There you can download images at high resolution, because those're the ones you want to work with.
When I found one that I liked
I had to figure out
how can I tear it apart to fit all the elements together.
Once I figured that out, I manipulated
everything else from that starting point.
This kind of design fits really well with our DTG printing,
because you're using photographic elements
and that means a lot of different types of texture
and really subtle shifts in tone and color.
That's something you couldn't
really do with screen printing
or if you did it would be crazy expensive.
Exactly and you can never be able
to get the kind of subtle shifts like this.
Even with something like this
where you can see the contrast
between the illustration and the photograph,
I like that there's a sense of harmony
all throughout the image.
I think that's something that you
or the designers
that you're working with should really keep in mind.
You can see how the color sort of
wraps around the entire image.
It leads your eye and makes you aware
that all of this is part of the same image
and it doesn't make your eye dart around
in different places that it shouldn't be.
Our fifth design trend
has to do with exaggerated characters.
This is within the realm
of graphic design and illustration,
but it's specifically character driven.
With these exaggerated, stylized characters
you see larger arms, larger legs
and a smaller stylized features of the face and head.
In this particular case,
you can see a fun Egyptian hieroglyphic kind of design,
but with a modern twist.
You see the God of death Anubis
with a God of knowledge Thoth.
They're giving each other a high five,
while you have little graphics of flowers and patterns
and little idols with the wings
making a pattern within themselves.
This is something I've noticed
we started using ourselves here at Printful.
You can find similar characters
in our recent publications.
Absolutely, it's certainly a style
that you see prevalent in a lot infographic
and motion graphic animations.
It really guides the eye of the viewer
to see what these characters are doing
rather than their emotional response.
They're just pointing and
then you look to where they point.
When creating a design like this
where it's almost like a pattern
but in a very limited composition,
it's really convenient if you make sure
to keep the background a solid color
and separate from
the rest of the elements in the foreground.
That really helps for products
like this phone case,
where all you really have to do
is remove the background
and then rearrange some of the
elements so that they fit the template.
For this particular one,
because the template in itself
is a little bit longer than it is wide,
that allows for these additional elements
to be placed on the top and bottom.
This way it looks like you've created
this design specifically for the product.
That speaks to the larger concept that you should always be thinking about
what the final destination
is for these graphics, for your designs.
Something that make sense on a tote
might not make sense for a phone case or a sweater.
You want to try to avoid get into that
method, where you're trying to make
one graphic that you can just 
plaster across every single different item.
You want to have a more considerate approach.
There's no way that your products will look
a hundred percent exactly the same
across the board for every single product.
Especially when you're printing
on a variety of different fabrics and textures.
That would be the case for this tote bag,
which is very thick it's very textured
and it's a completely different color as well.
It's sort of like a cream color.
It would be much more
convenient to remove all that color
leave it with just linework
so you don't have any of the ink
smudging into some of the elements of the linework.
What changes did you make
to put it on the sweatshirt here?
It was linework only and I made sure
that all the colors were on separate layers.
The background is on a separate layer.
The colors themselves are on a separate layer.
That would also depend on whether
you want to keep individual colors
on separate layers
so you could just change
all of those colors in just one fell swoop.
I made sure that all the linework
is on a separate layer as well.
If you want to create a sweater
with just singular line work,
but you already have color in it,
all you have to do is just turn off the layers.
That was the case with this sweater.
I also rearranged some of elements.
That's certainly a tip
that would be really helpful
for any of you
that are actually designing
or planning on going through
a design services team for any products.
When it comes to submitting a design request
it is absolutely clear to know
what products you will be creating at the end.
This way we'll know
to what extent we should be
separating layers and certain elements,
and how it should look on these different products.
As you can see, there're certainly visual variations.
For our last design trend we'll talk about
embroidered emblems and logos.
Now that the technology is getting
to where it's much easier to implement
that kind of thing on
different types of garments, not just hats.
It's becoming really popular especially in tandem
with enamel pins and patches.
It's a way to elevate your garment and final product.
By giving it a new space you make your logo
more recognizable and more prevalent,
aside from just printing it as an inside
or an outside label, or some other part of your graphic.
There's something nice about having it
embroidered on like a sweater,
where it's more substantial,
it adds more weight to it
as opposed to just a DTG print.
You want to make sure you're designing
a graphic for embroidery from the very start.
It's much easier to create
a new design that's meant for that
as opposed to taking something
you already have and making it embroidered.
You'll inevitably run into issues
with translating it from something
that works great for print
into something that can also work for embroidery.
Just to make it clear.
All the designs in the previously mentioned
trends will not work for embroidery.
In no way can you repurpose any of those designs.
When designing something for embroidery,
what works best?
What do we need to keep in mind
when creating something for embroidery?
You need to adopt the concept
that you're thinking of things in terms of shapes
instead of drawings or any kind of outline.
Everything has a certain thickness requirement.
Letters have a certain thickness and height requirement.
You want to think of everything
in terms of thickness and spacing
more than a drawing of a logo.
That even applies to an outline.
If you were to outline elements in your design,
we recommend that you do think of it as if it's a shape.
The outline in itself is something
that's measured in terms of the thickness
and its spacing from other elements of the design.
That's why we see that as a shape.
A design like this touches on everything
we talked about leading up until this point.
It's fun, it has primary colors and design elements,
but it's also very clear and easy to read.
It immediately takes the design and makes it iconic
and it plays all the strengths of our embroidery.
The thickness and the spacing have been
considered and it all has been well thought out.
You can certainly see
the difference between something that
was created specifically for embroidery,
as opposed to a realistically
created and painted tiger made for print.
Then a client or a designer would
want to have it translated into embroidery.
This really helps to make your product premium.
You can get printed shirts all across the place,
but it's very hard to find really good embroidered shirts.
That's a really cool way for you and your customer
to stand out from the crowd
with what they're wearing as a statement.
Yeah, it's certainly a really good idea.
You could either have it as a singular
embroidered graphic on its own,
or designate a hoodie, sweater or a jacket
to be the one that you'll fill with patches and pins.
I see you have it on a hat as well.
Yeah, this particular design was created
so that it could be translated for both
embroidered hats and sweaters.
You do have to keep in mind,
that the template for embroidered
shirts and sweaters is much larger, four by four,
as opposed to a high profile hat like this.
If you were to offer both embroidered hats and shirts,
it would be a great idea to actually
create the design specifically for hats first.
Then you can increase the size
when it comes to making
appropriate for embroidery shirts.
The last thing I want to talk about
isn't necessarily a design but a fashion trend.
Every year Pantone presents what the
color is for the different seasons and for the year.
For 2019 that color is living coral.
That's something that everyone can
incorporate into their designs
or the actual color of the product
that they're working with.
You'll start to notice that color
start popping up everywhere in stores.
It's a great way to stay with the trend of the bigger
society that you're selling in by doing that.
It doesn't necessarily have to be only coral shirts.
You have created these designs
with elements of that in them correct?
Right, it's a good starting off point
to think about what colors are popular,
but it should always come second
to what your brand is about
and what your main aesthetic is.
It should always be in service to
the kind of design choices you make.
One of the big reasons these kinds of colors,
like coral and other types
of pastel colors, are prevailing right now
is because they go in tandem with the 80's
and 90's vintage kind of designs and aesthetic.
It's a smaller part of a bigger theme.
If your brand fits in with that
then it will fit in with that to varying degrees.
You always need to maintain your focus
on the core concept of what your brand is.
You can play around with that too.
It doesn't necessarily have to just be coral,
it can include things in that same
gamut and spectrum of the color.
There're different shades of pink and peach.
Each company and brand has different terms
they like to use that are cute for their colors.
You can play around on the site to check those out.
Eric and Hannah thank you so much
for joining me today
there's a lot of really great information here.
We'll leave a link to the design services
in the description below.
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