Patches and t-shirt designs are like
cartoons--they're a picture of an idea. Designing is easier if you try
to imagine what has to be there and eliminate everything else. Think of
an abstract symbol for each item, an arrow, a tipi and so forth. After
you've assembled the necessary elements, try arranging them in
different ways. Computer "paint" programs are good for this cut and
paste approach.
Sketch out your idea in a 2 1/2 inch square.
Separate background and foreground shapes,
as if the square was a window into a box, or a theater stage.
Note: Most of the art
that comes in here is by children--we've found that it almost always
translates well so, don't hesitate to let the kids do the work.
Computers are also good at managing outlines and fills, or contours and colors--as when you draw a shape with a pencil and fill it in with a marker. These are two distinct operations: we often need to use our own discretion with colors, due to our printing process but usually we can reproduce outlines very accurately. We use a 3-color process: cyan, magenta and yellow ( blue, red and yellow--blue plus yellow makes green, etc.).
Color: We do what's called CMYK printing (CYAN,
or blue; MAGENTA, similar to red; plus YELLOW. K stands for black,
which we don't use--rather we overlay the other 3 which gives a kind of
dark plum color).
Lettering--We try to reproduce your design including
the words (I usually do a lot of cleanup on hand lettering)
If you'd like to specify a computer font it needs to be a common one,
like 'Ariel, Times or MS Comic sans'