Design your own t shirts

There are several ways in order to design your own t shirts, which are heat transfer, digital printing, screen printing, and vinyl. I will share how they works, the pros and cons for each for each methods.

First, Heat transfer is a method where you print a design from your printer on special paper, and then you will put the special paper in a heat press machine that applies the design to the shirt. This method is good for photographic and full color prints. However, it’s not a great way to imprint a shirt because these prints will quickly deteriorate after few washings.

Second, Digital Printing is essentially the process of running a t shirt through an ink jet printer that has special mechanism and inks for garments. This method is really easy to do in small runs and it’s very soft feel to the print. However, this technology still has isuues printing on dark colored shirts. Color quality can be unreliable if you go with a vendor who is using cheaper equipment.

Third, Screen Printing is the most popular method of applying art to t-shirt today. The apply named process involves pushing ink through a specially prepared screen onto the garment. Each color gets its own screen and each screen contains a “burned” image of all the elemente of the design that should appear in that particular color. Screen Printing is the best option for long lasting, multi-color prints, it also able to maintain very good detail. This method is the one that choose for my clothing line. The problem that you might face with screen printing is it can be expensive for short run jobs because of set up costs. Because jobs are usually charged by screen, multi-color/multi-position jobs can become expensive.



Fourth, Vinyl is synonymous with sports teams. “What?” Yup..the names and numbers you seen on the back little league and high school teams everywhere? Usually done with Vinyl. Letters, numbers, or any other simple designs can be etched from the material using a special vinyl cutter connected to a computer. After cutting, the excess vinyl is removed from around the graphic and then it’s applied to the garment using a heat press machine. This method is very inexpensive to produce single shirts. However, it’s realistically limited to 1-2 colors, no complex graphics, and limited imprint size.

Finally, there is a lot of different ways out there to put a design on a shirt, some methods work a little better than others. Generally though, screen priting is the perfect choice for artists who want to get the best quality representation of their work on a shirt.

Six Lives Inspiration

When I started to think about making my own clothing line, I have doubt in my mind that it will not going to work out. However, there are two clothing brand’s stories that support me to keep on doing my clothing line, which are Johnnycupcakes and The Bearon.

First, Johnnycupcakes is really influence me in starting this business because Johnny is a drop out college that like to draw and make t shirts out of it. This doesn’t mean that he influence me to drop out from college; but in the other hand it open my eyes about how big opportunity that I have to make my dream come true because I will graduate from college next year. He also inspired me with his vision to start a business that you have passion about. Honestly, that’s all it matters when it comes to find a job or even start a new business because you can explore and perform your ability and talent better than the job that you hated.

Second, The Bearon, an Ann Arbor-based company, was named in Inc. magazine's list of "America's Coolest College Start-Ups," which honors nine successful companies that were born and continue to grow on campuses across the nation. The Bearon inspired me in building my own clothing line because Caroline Rooney is a student from University of Michigan, which make me think, “if she can do it, I bet I can do better than that.”

Overall, you have to be confident about what are you going to do and put all the effort that you can do to make that dream come true in your life. You can do anything you put your mind to and never defeat yourself!

SixLives Marketing Strategy

I've been thinking about ways that i have to do to market my products out there and get people's interest on my product. this semester, i'm taking fundamentals of internet with Prof. Dude Lively; and he helped alot in building SixLives website. i know my website is really simple and i need to work more on that to make it more interesting and fun.

another way that i learned from Johnnycupcakes clothing is to put my stuff in retail store in the mall or department store in order to get your brand out there. The retail store that i look to work together with is PLANNINE skate shop in Mid Rivers Mall. I chose this store because my target market are people that interested in urban streets fashion, skaters, BMX riders, and all other extreme sports fans. Meanwhile, i'm trying to figure out about my marketing campaign that i want to do with them and hopefully will work the way i want it.

Tee Submissions

As a college student, i don't have a lot of money to invest in my clothing line business, so i have submitted some of my designs to the t shirt designs competition to win the cash prize, for example : www.threadless.com, www.6dollarshirts.com. if i win this competition i will expand Six Lives clothing to another level. here are some of my designs that i already submitted:

About Us

First of all, my name is Aldo Sidartawan and I am the founder of Six Lives clothing. I am 23 years old and I am from Jakarta, Indonesia. I am currently enrolled in Lindenwood University pursuing a degree in advertising and media. I love sketching random designs on my notebooks while I’m in class to kill time, it helps me listen to the teacher better when I drawing something. I know its sounds weird, but it works for me. I love guns and revolvers are my favorite type of gun; so one day I had an idea to make my own clothing line and I started brainstorming. I sketched up so many different design ideas.

I began poking fun at pop culture by replacing familiar icons or logos with guns. For example, I drew the cardinal bird in the St. Louis cardinals logo holding a revolver instead of baseball bat. I also drew the Statue of Liberty holding a revolver instead of a torch, etc.




I released my first two designs recently and started selling the t-shirts to my friends and people both on and off campus; it went pretty well. I started calling the clothing line “ Revolver” but I did some research and found out that someone else already has that brand name, so I changed it to Six Lives. The reason is because a Revolver has six bullets and they can save six lives. This summer my friend and I will be building a website so that people from all over the world can purchase our products.

Logo Designs

Another way to fun raising for Sixlives clothing is designing logos for companies or community. Designing logo is something that i really love to do and that's why i use my ability to help other companies or community in creating a new brand. here are some example work that i already did for companies or community:


This logo is for a party planner website here in St.louis, MO

















This logo and t shirt design is for a Christian community in Gainsville, FL

Spring Sale 2009

Here are my first two designs that available and it's only 20 limited tees for each designs. Get it while it's fresh!


















All Tees for only $19.99
Two for $34.99

(For limited time only)