Expert: Amy - 8/8/2007

Question
Hello,
I am a recent grad of a community college graphic design program.  We went
over basics of the all the adobe products, and I enjoy using Illustrator very
much.  Once graduated I set out to find a job.  It hasn't been very long since I
graduate, so I was thrilled to land a free-lance job designing T-shirts for
sprint car drivers. You know the ones, they have very bright images of the
driver's car, usually surrounded by flames and skulls, ect. That isn't really my
cup of tea, but still exciting (enough back story right?)
Any way, I am really pleased to get to work on this project, I plan on doing
the designs in Illustrator, but I don't have the first clue about set up for
screen printing.   It is rather embarrassing, I know that I learned this stuff in
school, but I feel like it is totally new.  Could you give me a little check list of
things that I may need to do for setup with my Doc.  I am asking you because
I saw another person ask you a similar question about screen printing.  The
jobs are going to be 6 colors on a dark shirt- however they didn't mention
anything about spot colors.  I would guess that they expected me to
understand that the design would need to be done in spot colors already.
Now that I think about spot colors it makes since.  But since I so
thoughtlessly over looked that fact, it makes me worried that I may over look
something else very simple, and in turn make myself look ignorant.  Do I
need to set up separate layers for each spot color for their ease of setting up
each screen?  Any help would be great, I feel so lost?  Thanks so much.
Aimee

Answer
Hi Aimee,

It should be easy for you to pick up enough skills to create spot color artwork. Since I rarely do t-shirts, I'm probably not the right person to create a checklist, but...

First find out if these t-shirts are done in the traditional manner (spot colors). Since they told you six colors, I'd assume you're right and will be designing in spot world. Full color CMYK+white t-shirt printing is becoming more common, though.

1 - Use all spot colors. Create your six spots first and use them as swatches, that should help. You should probably contact the printer to find out which Pantone colors they stock. Most t-shirt printers have a limited gamut. Printing separations to AdobePDF helps... you can check your spot color use that way. You can use Window > Document Info to make sure you don't use any CMYK or RGB colors, too. Use the flyout menu in Document Info to check "Objects" - that shows color use.

2 - Convert all fonts to outlines at the end.

3 - Usually a white layer is laid down before the rest of the colors (on dark shirts, at least). I don't know if the people you work with will require you to create this shape yourself or if they will generate it automatically. I don't know if it counts against your six colors, either. Since white is usually used as a sixth color in the artwork (as part of the design, not just an underlayment, I usually create it myself. What spot color to use as white? White doesn't work when designing on white, right? So I use hot pink or neon green sometimes.. I name the spot color 'white', though. I guess you use whatever color isn't in your design. Unless your printer has a color they'd like you to use.

4 - You don't HAVE to use separate layers but it really really helps during the design process.

5 - Screens are a lot less subtle than in press work. Use a 30% screen of red if your goal is 50% look. Use TINTS of spot colors. That's what I mean by screen.

6 - Work in overprint preview mode. Sometimes you may want to overprint a screen of something over another color. You may not have covered overprinting in your classes - think Yellow overprinted on Red = Orange. Remember to ease up on the screen percentages. Less is best.

7 - This may vary with the printer you use, but generally, you don't want to use special effects or transparency effects like drop shadows in your designs. If you need to use these effects (and I think flaming skulls might call for it), you must create spot color drop shadows, otherwise they are created in CMYK. I can't remember how to do that off-hand - depends on the version you've got. Just google it - you'll find it.

8 - I think many printers still prefer you save down to legacy EPS - version 9 is a common request for the t-shirt guys I've used.

9 - I don't think you'll have to mess with this, but screen angles, frequencies, and dot shape are important for screen printing output. Usually the printer handles this, since they're the ones actually doing the output. I've never had to do it but at least you'll know it matters, right? That's all found in the print setup.

10 - I can't think of 10. You'll be fine. Don't be afraid to ask the printer for advice (ask to come in and watch them do a design). Most printers would encourage it. The first time I did a billboard I was completely new to it so I went to the place and saw how they were made - from file to finish. It was cool.

I'm sure after a couple designs, you'll be able to give me tips on how to design shirts!

Let me know how it goes!
Amy