New to the shirt design industry and trying to get into the field

[dolphingirl22]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the t-shirt and clothing design business and am looking for advice on how to get started.
My goal is to develop a shirt design business where I both create the designs and transfer them to different items of clothing.
I am really interested in learning the different aspects of creating designs to transfer onto shirts including, Screen Printing, Airbrush and any other available techniques.

I have experience in free drawing from designs that I found on the Internet; from pictures of items that I own and from photos I have taken and transferring these drawings onto shirts using Iron on transfer paper. But I have never utilized any other techniques.
I also have free drawn and painted designs I found directly onto shirts using fabric markers and paints, stencils, patches and heat transfer items all of which I bought already created.

In addition, I took an Adobe Photoshop 1 class and an Adobe Indesign 1 class through a local junior college using Adobe Creative Suite 6.
Other than that I have only used Microsoft Word to make an iron on shirt design using images from the internet.

I would like to discover the following:

1. What is the best way to get started in the field of shirt printing/design?

2. Should I have a graphic design background? If so, should I get an associates degree, certificate/diploma.
Which classes should I take? Art and graphic design related.

3. What software should I learn?

4. Any additional skills I would need in order to be successful in this field? What is the best way to find someone with whom to apprentice?

I am really passionate about starting my own business selling clothing for which I created the designs for and then transferred the designs onto, but I am not sure where to start, so any advice in any or all of these areas would be great.

I am also looking to buy a new laptop to use for shirt design and as my everyday laptop.As I'm not very tech savvy and am new to t-shirt design, I was therefore wondering what specs my laptop should have in order to be able to design shirts.
 
What I would like to know:

1. What brand would you recommend? Brands that are known to not have a lot of computer (technical) issues.

2. Which  brand of processor Intel or AMD and which specific model?

3. Which graphics card should the laptop have? Integrated or Discrete? Nvidia, AMD or just Intel? Which specific card?

4. Does it matter if I use Windows 7 Professional or Windows 10 (professional or home)?

5. How much memory should the computer have?

My budget is $1300 and I would like a laptop with at least 11 hours of battery life.

I am only looking at PCs because I would not be able to do what I want to accomplish with a Mac since all of my software/documents are all specific to windows.

Also, any software recommendations for shirt design would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing all of your suggestions.



Thank you for your time and advice.

[mk162]

I'll play:

1. What is the best way to get started in the field of shirt printing/design?
The best way to start is working at a shop.  Understanding how shirts are printed is the best way to understand the process. Try and find a place that will allow you to move into design.

2. Should I have a graphic design background? If so, should I get an associates degree, certificate/diploma.
Which classes should I take? Art and graphic design related.
No, you don't need a degree.  You do need to be proficient in it though if you are going to work for somebody.  I would recommend training on a program though, Lynda.com(i think that's what it is) has great tutorials.

3. What software should I learn?
Adobe is the standard I would say.  We use Corel because it's easier to use and costs less and we can save files in whatever format needed

4. Any additional skills I would need in order to be successful in this field? What is the best way to find someone with whom to apprentice?
I would start with local shops

I am really passionate about starting my own business selling clothing for which I created the designs for and then transferred the designs onto, but I am not sure where to start, so any advice in any or all of these areas would be great.
I don't mean to be discouraging, but it's not that easy. A lot of people have this same idea and it's a lot more work than it seems.  Designing and having the shirts printed is the easy part...marketing and selling is the hard part.

I am also looking to buy a new laptop to use for shirt design and as my everyday laptop.As I'm not very tech savvy and am new to t-shirt design, I was therefore wondering what specs my laptop should have in order to be able to design shirts.
 
What I would like to know:

1. What brand would you recommend? Brands that are known to not have a lot of computer (technical) issues.
Lenovo, you can shop in their outlet and get a freaking great laptop for not a ton of money

2. Which  brand of processor Intel or AMD and which specific model?
Doesn't matter, just get a newer one and not a cheap on. 

3. Which graphics card should the laptop have? Integrated or Discrete? Nvidia, AMD or just Intel? Which specific card?
Again, shop deals at the Lenovo outlet.

4. Does it matter if I use Windows 7 Professional or Windows 10 (professional or home)?
I prefer 7 Pro.

5. How much memory should the computer have?
As much as you can afford.  You can usually upgrade them if needed.

My budget is $1300 and I would like a laptop with at least 11 hours of battery life.

I am only looking at PCs because I would not be able to do what I want to accomplish with a Mac since all of my software/documents are all specific to windows.

Also, any software recommendations for shirt design would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing all of your suggestions.



Thank you for your time and advice.