Make Your Own Band Shirt and Announce Your Tune

Do you play in a band? Do you have a loyal, dedicated following of avid fans?  Do you need to improve the efficacy of your marketing with less effort and cost?  If so, you should make your own band shirt and give them out on the street or sell them to fans at shows or through your site.  If you have ever been to a major rock show, you know how crucial the merchandise tables are to the support and growth of the fan base, and you can have that too, even at your small local shows.

To make your own band shirt, you will first need to design a memorable logo that represents your style of music and the personality of your members.  You could keep it simple by using the band name with a few graphic tweaks, or you could go all out and create a vision for something more powerful, more insightful.  Whatever you choose to embody your band, you will first need to draw it out on paper or via a graphic design program.  If it is hand drawn scan it into a photo editing program as though you designed it digitally.

From here, you have a few options.  If it makes sense for your budget, you could bring the design to a local shirt printer or send it to an online shirt distributor and hire them to print it for you.  This is the most efficient way, but can cost you more than you are willing to invest even though it’s a relatively affordable process.  If you still want to make your own band shirt by hand, you will need to make or buy a silk screen, get some photo-sensitive emulsion, and some dark-hued ink.  You can pick up a silk screen at a local art supply store and the emulsion from a photo supplier. 

Print your digital image onto a polyester-based transparency and place it into the screen.  Cover it with emulsion and expose it to a steady stream of light.  Rinse of the substance and remove the transparency and the image will have transferred to the screen.  Put your shirt against the design and pour ink into the screen.  Apply consistent pressure and run the ink off and the appropriate amount will have transferred the image to the shirt.  This is a process that you can learn and master to a reasonable efficiency.

If you don’t have the time to make your own band shirt, or perhaps need more than this process would allow you to make, it’s probably best to hire a company to make them for you.  The internet is a great place to find independent designers and distributors who would be interested in expanding their line.  Relationships like this are always mutually beneficial as you promote each other through your specific efforts and talents.

Whatever you choose to do, when you make your own band shirt, you assure that all your fans have memorabilia for a great show, and you’ll have the funds to continue making music.