Your Corporate Apparel Doesn't Have to Be Plain

Plain printed apparel screams plain business. But you don't have to spend big money to make a big impact. Working with good designers and good garment printers can help your company stand out in a world of boring, throwaway apparel.

As a now 10+ year apparel decorator, I've worked with everyone from small bands printing their first line of merch to Fortune 500 companies ordering corporate and event apparel. The ones that make an impact share many of the same traits, big or small. Making that right impression can make or break the success of the business.

So how do you get the most out of your printed goods?

Identify Your Audience & the Message They Receive

This seems obvious, but most people are too busy picturing themselves as the audience to think about what others actually see. What are the shirts (or other apparel) for? Here's how to break it down, using a landscaping company as an example:

• Company type: Landscaping
• Apparel needs: For the landscape crew
• Field location / environment: Yards and outdoor business courtyards
• Audience: Anyone who sees the crew working
• Goal of the apparel: To make people notice the great work and hire them for their own landscaping

Design: Make Them Actually See You

If you're running a successful business, you want more customers, right? People are used to seeing crews work, and we're almost trained to give them space, which means we often don't even look their way. If you want your apparel marketing to land, make people see you and remember you.

Back to that landscaping company. A strong attention-getter might be a pun, like "The grass is always greener... where we are," set in a clean font with tattoo-style roses and flowers growing around the words.

Design the art so the company name can sit under the design on the back, too. That only needs to be readable up close to someone wearing the shirt, so don't worry about making it big enough for distant or at-a-glance viewers. Make the art draw people in and make them want to know more.

Shirts that are memorable, and ideally desirable, drive better customer retention and stronger day-to-day marketing. Ready to get your new corporate apparel underway?