T-Shirt Design Ideas: 10 Creative Examples

T-shirts are among the most popular products to sell online, which makes sense considering how much variety there is with T-shirt design ideas. Plus, print-on-demand apps have made it possible to start a T-shirt business without inventory on-hand. But if you want your shirts to actually sell, you need an eye-catching custom T-shirt design. 

Here are 10 T-shirt design ideas to inspire you, with examples from established apparel businesses.

10 T-shirt design ideas

1. Retro T-shirts
2. Maximalist T-shirts
3. Embroidered T-shirts
4. Special interest T-shirts
5. Food T-shirts
6. Slogan T-shirts
7. Humorous T-shirts
8. Artistic T-shirts
9. Floral and botanical T-shirts
10. Streetwear T-shirts

Below are 10 examples of T-shirt designs from established brands, to help spark your creativity. Once you have a design you like, you can connect a print-on-demand (POD) app to your Shopify store to start selling. With a POD model, you don’t need to purchase inventory upfront—the product is only produced once a customer places an order. With this setup, you can test designs with your audience before investing in inventory.

1. Retro T-shirts

Retro-inspired T-shirts use pop culture references, fonts, colors, and images that evoke a specific era. A 1970s-inspired design, for example, could use a bubbly, rounded font and warm, earthy colors like mustard yellow and burnt orange. This shirt from Big Bud Press uses a raglan-style baseball cut tee as a base, and a friendly-faced graphic reminiscent of a 1970s concession stand.

2. Maximalist T-shirts

Maximalist T-shirts embrace a “more is more” aesthetic. They use bright colors, bold patterns, high-contrast graphics, and minimal white space. This vivid print from Nooworks fills every inch of space on the black T-shirt base with contrasting purples, oranges, and reds for a design you can’t help but notice.

3. Embroidered T-shirts

Embroidered T-shirts are created by stitching thread onto fabric, which gives them a handcrafted feel. You can hire embroiderers to make your T-shirts, or use a print-on-demand embroidery service, which uses computerized sewing machines to manufacture designs. 

Embroidery is best suited for small designs, such as a pocket logo, a simple image, a single word, or a brief quote, as large embroidery designs that cover the whole shirt may create a stiff garment that doesn’t feel wearable. The embroidery on this tee from Maison Labiche captures the personal feel of a handwritten love note with its imperfect font and layout. 

4. Special interest T-shirts

Special interest T-shirt designs speak to a niche hobby (such as chess, Dungeons & Dragons, or bird watching) or a specific interest (like Greek mythology, astrology, trains, or paleontology). This tee from Bird Collective has stylized prints of common species and a slogan that broadcasts the wearer’s love for the locals.

5. Food T-shirts

Food T-shirts can be cute and playful, or sophisticated and artistic. These designs may depict trendy treats or universally popular foods. For example, this Lisa Says Gah tee is available with a print of a martini, cake, or bowl of olives—a true foodie T-shirt buffet. 

6. Slogan T-shirts

Slogan tees depict a short phrase, sometimes using highly legible, bold typography. They are short messages that are easy to read at a glance, but they can pack real meaning, as they do for The Legends League Inc. founder Brian Espiritu. 

“Designers that understand communicative design will always try to communicate ideas that people can relate to—whether or not you wear it on a shirt or a hat,” he says on Shopify Masters.

Consider a limited-edition T-shirt with either your mission statement or slogan. If you don’t have a good slogan yet, you can brainstorm one using Shopify’s free slogan maker.

7. Humorous T-shirts

Humorous T-shirts are fun and relatable, using text or imagery to spark a laugh. This might mean using sarcastic phrases, puns, and silly or surprising imagery. This one from Life is Good cleverly juxtaposes two niche interests: fantasy football and fantasy lore. 

8. Artistic T-shirts

Artistic T-shirt designs are all about beauty and creativity. These T-shirts can have hand-drawn illustrations, painterly images, or striking graphic design. The illustration for this T-shirt from Yarrow Goods was created by Cofounder Grace Estrada. The brand’s graphic art is inspired by “the timeless sophistication of Japanese advertisements, the charm of our antique collections, retro imagery, and a touch of nostalgia,” according to info on their site.

9. Floral and botanical T-shirts

Floral and botanical designs can be romantic and old-fashioned or clean and modern, depending on the artistic style. The style above from Stay Home Club shows the brand’s love for details and intricate prints. 

10. Streetwear-inspired T-shirts

Streetwear is a casual fashion style inspired by subcultures like hip-hop and skateboarding. Olajuwon Ajanuku and Earl Cooper Olajuwon started the brand Eastside Golf to inject streetwear elements into golf apparel and accessories. 

Olajuwon merged two photos of himself—one as a child swinging a golf club and one as an adult wearing a gold chain—to create this graphic for Eastside Golf, which ultimately became the brand’s logo. He says on Shopify Masters that he was stopped in the streets over 100 times while wearing a sample print of this design. 

“From there, I was like, damn, I got something,” he says.