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Imagine you’re in a time machine that takes you back to 2005. What do you see?
Low rise jeans everywhere. (An unfortunate time, indeed.)
Now, warp to a few years later and place yourself in a county fair.
Two words: Airbrushed shirts. With swirling names, bright colors, and graffiti-inspired designs.
The influence that trends have on people is insane and sometimes questionable.
However, the power of trends will never change. As an apparel brand, you should pay attention to them. Whether you adopt them or rebel against them is completely up to you.
Let’s look at a few trends you should keep an eye on in spring 2022:
1. Bold text that is the focal point of the design
When paired with bright colors or an eye-catching typeface, text can elevate a design from boring to bodacious.
When you choose to make text the primary element of your custom apparel design, you can be sure that your message will be heard loud and clear.
The styling of the text is also important to consider.
Will you use all caps? All lowercase? Cursive? Serif? Sans serif?
Last week, we shared the importance of choosing appropriate colors for your apparel designs, but using the right text is also crucial.
Choose your message wisely—it might end up in the t-shirt hall of fame for everyone to see for the rest of eternity. (OK, that’s a little dramatic, but you get the point.)
2. Tiny designs that are front and center
We know this contradicts what we just said about big, bold letters—but we want to talk about tiny designs too because trends are subjective.
Have you ever heard of the concepts of positive and negative space? The truth is that there’s never a positive without a negative. Here’s what we mean:
Positive space is the subject of your design. It’s the star of the show.
Negative space is the empty space that surrounds your design. It’s the stagehand.
Just like a show needs both roles to go on, your design needs both positive and negative space to be compositionally balanced.
Tiny, front-and-center designs make the most of the negative space that surrounds them to draw more attention to themselves. (It sounds ironic, but it just works.)
3. Colorful illustrations
While we primarily see neutral colors, blues, and purples in winter, spring is symbolic of rebirth—and that means the bright colors and short-sleeved shirts emerge from everyone’s wardrobes (unless you live in Antarctica, of course).
That’s why we want to highlight colorful illustrations as one of the prominent custom apparel trends for spring. Pops of color can work wonders for your designs.
Like we mentioned last week, contrast is one of the most important elements of color theory.
Complementary colors work well in illustrations. However, if you decide to use hues on the same side of the color wheel, make sure you have enough contrast between the values (a.k.a. lightness and darkness) of your colors.
4. Simple illustrations
Illustrations don’t have to look like Claude Monet’s paintings to be impactful.
If you want viewers to pay more attention to the subject rather than the art, simple illustrations or line drawings can work well for your apparel designs.
The key is to create a consistent style for your custom apparel that is distinct and recognizable from afar.
As you grow your brand, you want people to be able to recognize it without ever seeing your logo or company name.
If 3rd-grader esque doodles are your style, so be it. Just make sure you own your brand and believe in it 100%, no matter what the critics say about it.
5. Red and white designs
We won’t belabor the importance of contrast anymore (at least for today), but red and white are an amazing pair.
If you’re going for a modernized retro look, this dynamic duo will bring a blast from the past to your custom apparel.
Nothing says “spring” like a brave pop of color, so don’t be afraid to rock the red in 2022.
Here’s a range of red hues we dare you to try:
Are you the next trendsetter?
Don’t sleep on your million-dollar ideas. We’re ready to bring your designs to life.
