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Welcome to the sixth step of starting your print-on-demand business with Fuel - you deserve a round of applause! Look at all you’ve accomplished: You’ve chosen the right platform to work with, found a niche you want to focus on, narrowed it to a buyer persona, and defined the brand guidelines of your business. Way to go 😎
Is there something missing? Oh yeah, only the products! It’s not a store until it has merch in it.
You’re probably thinking about partnering with a graphic designer to help you with artwork, or maybe you’ve decided to go solo. Either way, this is what you have to consider when working on best-selling designs:
When it comes to making your own artwork, brainstorm, write, and sketch all your ideas, no matter how simple or bizarre they are.
Think about the different collections you want to sell, the design and product colors, artwork placements, decoration method, and the approach you want with your audience, like humorous illustrations or inspirational quotes. If you’re feeling a bit blocked creatively, you can always look for inspiration on Google, Pinterest, or Behance.
Once you have a long list of possible designs, set apart your strongest alternatives and start polishing them by our three sacred rules:
This applies to all the details in your artwork! A successful design should be readable and understandable. If you’re trying to communicate something or make an element of your image pop, avoid using heavy graphics, adding hard-to-read fonts, and overlapping elements.
Your customers should be able to catch the message while scrolling down your store. If they don’t get your idea, they’ll pass it!
They say go big or go home, we say go big and sell more 🔥
Best-selling print-on-demand designs often include bold elements. The larger the artwork is, the easier it is to notice it. And, speaking of noticeable artwork, don’t forget about the product’s color you’re printing on! Light yellow contrasts better with a dark blue background than with a white one.
Your designs will look more professional and aesthetically pleasing if they follow a single color palette. We know that DTG printing allows almost infinite combinations, but we recommend using a three to five color scheme.
Professional-looking artworks have the same illustration style, so try to give all your store’s designs the same “vibe.” This way, when people see your products, they’ll instantly know it's from your brand.
💡 Fuel Tip: Create a moodboard you can refer to when designing your artwork. Find an example on this blog from our team.
Building a print-on-demand empire is a trial and error process. Don’t be afraid to try different designs until you find what’s more successful among your customers. If you’re new to POD, we recommend starting with a few products, then increasing your catalog over time.
Open your store with at least five unique designs. When you start making sales, you’ll see which are more appealing. Don’t get frustrated if one of your creations isn’t selling as you thought it would.
Instead, learn from what’s working and adjust your not-so-successful artwork to match your best-selling ones. Get creative and play with more product colors, different artwork placements, or even more designs!
💡 Fuel Tip: Check out these free online design tools that can help you create quality artwork.
Now you know the dos and don’ts of artwork design for print-on-demand. We’re pretty confident that you’ll come up with popping designs to place on your products 😎
Make sure you follow all the specs for printing your products correctly. Visit our help center, where you’ll find articles and guides from Fuel experts on all our decoration methods:
Ready to continue on this journey? Keep reading the series to find top-trending products for your POD business!
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