250 bucks a t-shirt design and you want to make at least 35,000 a year you would have to do about 3 designs a week. over 150 designs a year!
thats alot of work for 35,000 bucks?
Can you make a living doing just t-shirt design?
If you made 600 to 800 then it wouldn’t be that hard.
36 Comments
jsheldon said 4 months ago
Good point. That’s a ton of tees just ot make an "ok" living. Seems like we are getting the raw end of the deal as designers.
jimiyo said 4 months ago
true
before as an AD, i got to see what we paid our freelancers, we usually paid $350-375.
i think you can also get higher end clientale who pay 500-1000, sometimes more.
also some apparel companies give you like dozens of designs.
i worked for one that gave me like 20 to do. although at a slightly lower rate than 350, most didnt take all day to do one. so theres a big chunk there. in a small period of time.
i think as an designer/artist, you have to find other sources of income. like selling tees, vector, etc etc. this part the most important, because having to constantly fill the pipeline for doing designs for clients would be too much work. working hard, not smart.
i think. im still figuring it out.
i was thinking, if you are an designer, get more information about the whole process, you can start to cut out the middle man as far as the printing. you can take the upcharge printers charge for buying shirts, and put that in your pocket if you can front the money. i have an veteran AD friend who does this. so essentially, hes a designer, contract print middleman.
maybe make friends with a printer as being the friendly who directs business of printing to them.
etc etc etc etc
there people out there that make a lot of money as a designer. if anyone can do it... so can you.
molasses4masses said 4 months ago
the thing is, i think most designers don’t make the bulk of their income from selling shirt designs.
edword said 4 months ago
yeah I have a 9 to 5, but I’d rather be doing tees and shit like that.
LitoQ said 4 months ago
my cousin’s firm paid ONE GUY $16,000 just for one Flash presentation, granted it was a bit extensive but 16Gs!!!??? I need to learn flash ASAP
jimiyo said 4 months ago
you can Do it!
i started in december. i started at $150 per design, because i lacked confidence, and wasnt aware of the standard. month later $200. then couple months later $350, and now i can sometimes call for $500-$1000 per design. they are labor intensive, but well worth the time investment. eventually, i hope to get so full of myself, that i start demanding $1000 consistently. heheheh... jokes but not really. theres a true story about a gallery artist who couldnt sell his crap fro $300 so he kept going from gallery to gallery demanding more money, and eventually someone bought a piece for 10K. it seems its just like anything else in affairs with people, its the perceived value that you project, and eventually someone will eat your bs. although it has to be backed up with at least some value...
also, i think tshirt industry is cheap. im fairly certain if you get into other avenues for illustration you will get more $ for your work. i have a friend, who is retired now, who was making a couple grand for just one illustration. although it was high end cutaway mechanical drawings like airplane engines, etc... still dood was making six figures.
keep the faith!
justinryan said 4 months ago
Yeah, all you dudes who do great illos for your tees should reach out to magazines and stuff. They generally pay much better for art than the average apparel people.
molasses4masses said 4 months ago
I was saying that their focus isn’t totally on tees. A lot of people do Flash and website stuff as well.
Jimiyo, you are the man!
a killer wombat said 4 months ago
dude thats nothing, one of the agencies I used to work at 16k wouldn’t even cover the CMS let alone get you started on the flash pieces... I do a ton of flash these days (was a flash guy at this last place) and I would love to pull in that kinda money in the near future. It takes a long time to get to that price though... and selling your soul.
jsheldon said 4 months ago
Yeah, there is definitely a ton of money in web stuff. Websites can easily be $5000-$10,000 depending on the client. Now I just have to find those clients :)
Tees are so much more exciting to work on though.
landshark said 4 months ago
And obviously if you start your own line, preferably as an established designer, you can make more money there.
I made the mistake in high school of starting with a clothing line. There are so many small/myspace based clothing lines because it is viewed as the starting ground, when really I think it should be the advanced step. Unless of course your line, is the product of purchased work from other, preferably established, designers.
horsebites said 4 months ago
Its totally possible. I mean come on, if I can do it than anyone can. I do a bunch of other jobs than shirts. Depends on the clients and how much work is involved. I don’t even count my webstore sales for my annual income and I’m doing WAY better than I ever was.
heroes said 4 months ago
if you actually sit and work on design the same as you would at a place of work
35-45 hours a week of solid working
i think3-4 designs per week isnt alot to ask for
by actually solid work i mean not half work quarter aim quarter emptees
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
I agree with Jimiyo. It’s totally possible. I started charging $300 with zero t-shirt design experience back in July 07. But I was an Art Director at a big ad agency with an ok portfolio. Surprisingly, there were clients willing to pay that much at that time. Right now, I can charge around $500 for clients like Urban Outfitters (yes i have sold my soul to them). I’m halfway around the world and find all my clients online. So I guess it should be easier for your if you’re there? And to tell you honestly, I’m proud to say I’m almost at the $35K mark you set and I still have 6 months left (including july). That includes winnings at t-shirt contests and just t-shirt design work for clients.
It’s all there for the taking my friend. You got a great folio, you’ve won a lot on t-shirt sites, you definitely got the experience. I say go for it man.
edword said 4 months ago
ummm..dude your horsebites!
a killer wombat said 4 months ago
If you really work at it you can make a living doing this stuff... you just have to realize for a while its not going to be a 9-5 job. Your going to be working crazy long hours to make enough money to pay bills and shit. Eventually it will all fall into place and you can really take your time on projects and people will come to you for work and you’ll be set... and your work is amazing, you’ll have no problem getting to that level.
edword said 4 months ago
thanks man I guess I just need to get out there. I’ve got to get better at networking.
35 k in the Philippines, seems with the conversion rate you must be doing pretty good!
heythequickness said 4 months ago
I would love to do t-shirt designs for freelance, but my problem is finding clients. I have no idea what to present to them, would something like an online portfolio help or what? Or do clients come to me?
quixotic said 4 months ago
I’ve wondered that as well. Do I just cold-email people saying "I can design t-shirts, would you like to pay me?"
a killer wombat said 4 months ago
a good portfolio really helps along with getting promotion on tshirt sites. I used to get all of my tshirt work through my portfolio and word of mouth. The thing when building a portfolio is that a lot of does come down to how well your stuff is displayed so if you are or not building it yourself shell out a few extra bucks to make sure its a good one. Its an investment in your brand(yourself).
haha, I wouldnt word it like that but along those lines.... say stuff you really believe in, dont just say crap to get a job or make money. Find lines you do admire and write them an email saying how much you do enjoy their current work and you would love to design for them if possible. They will most likely at least check out your portfolio (I always do when people send us emails) and if they are feeling it they will get in touch with you to start working.
molasses4masses said 4 months ago
Yes. I’ve been told that you should email bands, but not to their band myspace or anything. You need to get in touch with someone in the band.
tomburns said 4 months ago
I have been freelance for almost two years now.
its hard work, sometimes feast, sometimes famine, you gotta find different kinds of design work to do sometimes to keep you afloat, there are business licenses, business taxes, county and city taxes, federal income taxes, sales taxes and you have to do all that crap yourself... and if you want insurance, it’ll be expensive.
... but you also get to work from home, set your own hours, you don’t have a boss hassling you, there aren’t annoying people you have to deal with on a day to day basis (most of the time), and you really like what you do for a living! :)
sure, it can be stressful, but what job isn’t?
i say,
GO FOR IT! :)
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
you see i would love to do some magazine work, the only problem is getting in contact with them or where to start!
heythequickness said 4 months ago
So if I wanted to design something for The Ataris, I would contact someone in the band directly as opposed to their management or record label?
edword said 4 months ago
I heard an interview with Chuck Anderson and he said he would cold call (e-mail) like crazy when he was starting out. If he wanted to do work for a magazine he would figure out who the art director was and just guess at his e-mail address. Pretty fuckn clever...
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
Err.. As i was starting out, I actually found decent clients over at....craigslist.org and guru.com haha! Yeah if you just look hard enough, there are some good projects over there. I literally emailed hundreds of people in 07. Nowadays, I still email a few every week or two. But am still surprised to get some emails from people who want work done. I say build a folio of just t-shirt designs, I have mine on:
a) my own website
b) emptees
c) behance.net
d) coroflot.com
e) styleportfolios.com
e) designbyhumans.com (clients have found me just by being there)
Just get your name out there and do quality work. The projects will soon follow.
molasses4masses said 4 months ago
Yes.
heythequickness said 4 months ago
That’s awesome! I just bought my domain for my shirt company that I’m trying to start, but at the same time I’m going to use it to piggy back my portfolio site. Hmm... gotta start working.
brett_district said 4 months ago
yeah, but even if you average 8 hours a design (which seems like more than is probably accurate) that means you are only working 150 days of the year. (30 weeks @ 5 days a week). If you can make 35,000 working 7 months of the year, that doesnt seem so bad
quakerninja said 4 months ago
Those free online portfolios are great. Do them all remember google loves links.
edword said 4 months ago
lots of great info in here thanks guys!
Elks said 4 months ago
If you do want to start designing for bands, just do a shirt for them just for the fun of it, stick it up here and just do that a couple times. I know that a lot of record labels have profiles on here/visit this site. You can also find e-mail addresses for record labels if you try hard.
heythequickness said 4 months ago
I thought spec work was looked down upon here??
Elks said 4 months ago
Maybe I didn’t get the memo. I just think this is a great place to showcase your skills and get exposure that you normally wouldn’t. I’d like to know for sure if it is...
But sending that kind of stuff to record labels is great idea.
justinryan said 4 months ago
Nothing against you dude, but I definitely would not do this. I would think this is lower than spec, as there are even better odds with spec. I would think that this is more of a "fan art" kind of thing and would be frowned upon. If I came on here and saw someone just throwing up work that they did for one of the bands I manage, I would be kind of annoyed. People may think you were hired by them and if the design isn’t good, it could reflect badly on them.. Maybe I am looking into this too much, though?
Elks said 4 months ago
I understand where you’re coming from.