horses for courses really. i've tended to buy the more graphic designery kinda ones as opposed to the really arty ones.

Me, I like it when the design requires a 2nd, or closer look for the meaning to become apparent. My fave Tee at the mo (First ever ordered off here) is







Two totally different images/messages, without being one of those old-timey optical illusions. I like shirts that can entertain, but not for being all ostentatious and la-di-da look at me I'm all urbane and sophisticated. I guess the colour palette plays a role too, you don't want them to jar with the shirt or overwhelm the design. Finally, I like the tee to be used as a canvas, but more so. I.E. creativity with placement usually wins bonus points with me - it's good to acknowledge the 3-dimensional aspect of tees(having said that, the 4 shirts I've bought so far are all pretty much chest-centred, so i might be talking waffle there).

there's a ton of good tee designs here!

Something that is not only technically or artistically executed well, but overall the image/design is really cool or funny. I'm not really particular on the illustration style. It can be watercolors, line art, comic-bookish, cartoon-ish, etc.



When you get down to it, there is no "science" to a good design, or at least no simple answer. People know good shirts when they see them, but they can come in any sort of style, shape, color, etc.



Everyone asks this question as if they're going to figure out the secret recipe for getting a print. Doesn't work that way. Take a look at the selection of printed shirts and look and what sort of things get printed. Sure, there's some recurring themes, but no one's going to give a shirt a 5 unless it's genuinely good. Unless you bring in several hundred people from another site to vote for your design.

@Skilly - that's a good choice there. I like it when the design uses the actual tee as a prop? So not necessarily just a graphic slapped on a tee, but something that uses the shape and layout of the tee to become something cool so I see what you're saying.



I'm not really a fan of T-Shirts that only like 3 people would find funny and everyone else says it's the best thing ever even though they're just as confused as everyone else - no names though =P



I also like stuff which is kind of like "whoa that's a cool t-shirt' but not in a loud or obnoxious way, just well designed, simple and effective design...



@Jellyes thanks for the link...

The one true thing that rings through is that the statement of a shirt usually needs to be interesting. No one really likes shirts with just random stuff or seemingly cool or neat stuff slapped on to it. They want their shirt to mean something, say something, and above all, look good doing so.

That's a great point. I guess a really good t-shirt says something about who you are and what you're about.



I wasn't asking looking for any kind of secret ingredient to a print, because as we can see the kinds of choices available a quite varied in style. That said there are some tee designers (like Glennz) whos designs consistently rank higher and vote better than others. And when you look at them, there is something appealing to the way in which they are executed (simple and funny) which makes more people interested in them. I was just asking in the interests of becoming a better designers and seeing if theres anything that can be learnt?