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10/07/2022
The Complete Logo Sizing and Placement Guide
Screen printing a T-shirt is a big deal — after all, it is a walking advertisement
for your brand and your business. A promotional T-shirt can be one of the most important investments in your marketing playbook. Be sure to get it right with these important tips!
We’ll discuss T-shirt logo size and other tips to help you get the ideal logoed tee in this T-shirt design placement guide. Your custom shirt could potentially promote your brand for years to come, so you want T-shirt dimensions to be spot-on. According to the 2020 ASI Ad Impression Study, having the perfect blend of each area will guarantee a positive ROI. People will wear your promotional T-shirt because it is useful, is comfortable and looks super cool.
T-shirt Design with Your Audience in Mind
Once you’ve made the decision to add promotional t-shirts to your marketing plan (great choice, btw) the next thing you want to consider is your audience. Who will be wearing your custom logo shirt? Who do you want to wear your apparel? Who will see people wearing your brand?
If the people who will be wearing your shirts are school-age athletes, you’ll likely select a very different shirt than if your target audience is rock music concert goers. The color of the shirt will probably be different for each group as will the material and likely the logo size, placement, and shape.
If you are outfitting participants in a charity 5k you will want a t-shirt material that offers moisture wicking features & is breathable. You’ll also select colors that are vibrant yet tasteful & don’t clash with other color selections.
Should your audience be employees in a professional setting, the logo placement, shape, and size will be important. You’ll want your artwork to be visible from a closer distance rather than readable from afar. The colors you select will be more neutral & the shirt might have long sleeves depending on workplace conditions.
Let’s say you are planning to sell your promotional apparel. Selling t shirts & other promotional apparel is one of your best advertising investments but think carefully about who your audience is first. Your customers probably come from all walks of life, so offer t shirt varieties that appeal to everyone. Select logo shapes that are pleasing to many people, choose logo sizes that turns heads, and pick logo placements that attract attention. The artwork you choose will make a difference.
Knowing your audience & selecting promo t-shirts for them, will ensure your investment in custom t-shirts is money well spent. Now that you have considered who your audience is…what exactly does tshirt logo size, logo shapes, and logo placements mean??
Positioning Custom T-Shirt Logo Placement When Purchasing Promotional Apparel
Gone are the days of promotional t-shirt logo placement being one size fits all. You have choices in t shirt logo placement… lots of choices. Front, back, left chest, right chest, full front, you could even choose to have your artwork imprinted on the sleeve or neckline of some tee shirts.
Certain t shirt selections may include a trademarked brand logo as well. If you are a big fan of a brand like Carhartt or Champion, these might be great options for you. Check out these examples of different logo placements. In some cases, you will have more than one option, be sure to check with your brand consultant for more information about custom logo placement.
Primary Shape Options for Logoed Tees
You may already have your logo design selected and in heavy rotation, but what if you don’t have a primary logo or what if you want options for your logo to really stand out on a promotional T-shirt? A great place to start thinking about this is with the shape. The shape of a logo matters and can range from fun and business-relevant to practical and traditional. Your options include:
- Symmetrical: Think back to 5th grade math…symmetry is when you fold a shape in half and the two sides match perfectly, like squares or circles. These logo shapes are perfect for centering under the neckline of a promo shirt.
- Wide: This T-shirt logo shape is like looking through the wide lens option on your smartphone. It’s rectangular with long edges spanning the width of the shape. A wide logo is a great option for the back of a shirt or centered in the middle front.
- Tall: Flip that rectangle around and you’ve got a tall logo. This shape accentuates the length of the logo and is perfect for bottle shapes or oval designs. This artwork is long and tall.
- Full: A full-shaped logo takes up a lot of space. It is wide, tall and long all at once. This type of design can be very effective at catching people’s attention. Although typically made of busy shapes, a full-shaped logo can be clear and concise at the same time which is great when you have lots to say with your logo.
No matter what you want the shape of your logo to say, you are sure to find the perfect logo shape for your brand. Be sure to consider each of these logo shapes for your promotional apparel item and think “outside the box.”
Average Sizing for the Most Common Print Locations
Sizing and logo placement on a shirt can make a massive difference to onlookers. Finding the right space for your promotional image is the next step to achieving a successful advertising strategy. Here are a few shirt decal size measurements to help determine where your logo should fit best:
- Left chest: The logo size should be no larger than 2.5-5 inches wide and 2.5-5 inches tall. Place the image 7-9 inches below the left shoulder seam and directly in between the center of the shirt and the left side seam. This placement area works best for simple designs and minimal wording.
- Center chest: The image on the center chest area of the T-shirt should measure about 6-10 inches wide and 6-8 inches tall. Place the logo 4-6 inches below the neckline. This space can fit a slogan or a landscape-oriented logo.
- Full front: The image taking up most of the front side of a T-shirt should measure 10-12 inches wide and 10-14 inches tall. Similar to the center chest image placement, place designs about 4-6 inches below the neckline. If your logo uses negative background space, the full front placement option will highlight the shape and colors of your design best.
- Oversize front: This image will take up the entire front side of a T-shirt and should measure 12-15 inches wide and 12-16 inches tall. Like the center chest and full front image placement, the design will sit about 4-6 inches below the neckline. An image with more negative space is perfect here.
- Upper back / Back Tag: This image will cover the top middle of the back in a rectangular shape and should measure 10-14 inches wide and 1-6 inches tall. The design will rest 5 inches below the collar, directly in between the T-shirt’s left- and right-hand side seams. This area works great for a simple logo design. If your target audience mostly consists of women, placing your logo in another space on the T-shirt may work best to avoid long hair styles covering the entire design.
- Full back: This placement option maximizes an image’s size to cover the shirt’s complete back side. The logo should measure about 10-14 inches wide and 6-15 inches tall. This section of the shirt functions as an accessorized billboard for your business, as onlookers can read or study the logo easily.
- Sleeves: When placed on a sleeve, the logo should take up the bottom portion of one arm. The design should measure between 1-4 inches wide and 1-4 inches tall. This placement is sometimes paired with a left chest design to balance the logo using the various points on a shirt without crowding the material.
Did You Know?
You can choose unique locations for your logo on a T-shirt that stray from the standard chest or back placement options. For a stylish approach to your logo imprint on a shirt, you can place the image in areas such as the collar, cuff or lower back.
When you choose these imprint options, you have the creative freedom to implement a subtle yet attractive look for potential customers to get to know a little more about your brand.
Important Things to Consider Before Selecting a Size
Consider a few aspects of your logo design and sizing options before mapping out what your T-shirts will look like. Your audience will appreciate you going the extra mile to make a stylish tee while you’ll feel confident in knowing more people will view your logo.
Who Will be Wearing Your Custom Logo Shirt?
Designing the perfect promotional T-shirt is a fun process that can help to attract potential consumers to your business. Understanding who makes up your target audience is an important step in any marketing strategy. How can you make your T-shirts fit in with those that will be representing your brand? Consider what activities your audience might participate in.
If your target audience consists of athletes, you may want to invest in T-shirt materials that are breathable and comfortable. Suppose you market toward those in a more professional setting. You might place your logo on the left chest side for a more sophisticated look. Several factors can determine who in your target audience will best represent your brand through what they choose to wear. Widen your T-shirt collection to appeal to all audiences and maximize sales and your business’s representation.
How Complex is Your Design?
A logo with clean lines and professional-looking fonts looks great in a large size layout. It might not look so good in a left chest position, however, because of its complexity. Many designs with lots of wording or intricate images would most likely look best big rather than small.
How Colorful is Your Logo Artwork?
A logo that has multiple colors usually looks sharpest in a larger size compared to a smaller size. When colorful logos are condensed too small, they can sometimes lose the clean, crisp lines the logo originally had. In the case of the baseball player logo on the custom T-shirt pictured below, the image looks fantastic in this large size. There are five colors in this logo, and making it any smaller might make some of those colors less vibrant.
BONUS TIP!! Another color consideration with your logo is whether you should use a “knock-out.” A knock-out is the absence of color, almost like a stencil. The promotional product makes up the color. If you want to try this concept, think about the color of the custom shirt you are using. This method also saves money since you are often using the shirt color in place of an additional ink color.
Here’s a great example:
If you have a logo that is similar to the ePromos logo above, you could use a white T-shirt that would make the use of white ink unnecessary. It’s always best to check with your brand consultant to ensure the product looks the best it can.
What Size Shirts Will You Offer?
It’s human nature to want to compare apples to apples, after all, it doesn’t make much sense to compare apples to… green peppers! When we think about custom logo shirts, think about logo size compared to shirt size. If you have 11-inch-wide artwork, it’s going to look much different on a men’s extra-large shirt than on a youth’s small tee shirt.
Knowing your audience is key. Think about the shirt sizes your audience will want. If a women’s, size small, is needed, determine how your logo will appear on that size tee. If your target customer will need a range of sizes, you might opt for a couple of different-sized logos.
How to Visualize Your Logo on a Custom T-Shirt
There are four great ways to get a concrete idea of how big your logo should be and what it will look like on a promotional T-shirt:
- Use a standard piece of paper. Most of us have a sheet of paper around the house, hold it up to the shirt size you think will be popular. The paper measures 8.5 inches on the short side and 11 on the long — great visual.
- Print your logo, cut it out and tape it to a tee you already own. Look at the taped-on logo from a close distance and from afar — picture perfect.
- Take a look at the cool promotional shirts you have in your closet. Which logo size looks good? What is the size of the shirt? Does any size not work very well?
- Call your Customer Service Rep.! They will have answers to all your questions and answers to questions you haven’t even asked yet!
Order Branded T-Shirts Tailored for Your Business
If you know that customized promotional T-shirts are the next move for your business needs, let ePromos help fulfill that goal! Our guide to creating the perfect apparel to capture your business’s style is only one click away.
Our team of representatives can help you select the right placement, sizing and shape for your logo to capture the attention of your audience. Whether you plan to sell your apparel as merchandise or use T-shirts to spread the word about your business, ePromos can help your marketing strategies come to life. Order your promotional T-shirts today! Contact us through phone or email to get started.
Updated on October 7, 2022
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About Author
Katie S.
Reviewed By: Kaite S. - Marketing Brand Specialist
Tenacious brand warrior who is laser-focused on boosting our brand through effective social media presence and multiple resources. Principal producer of marvelous messages and email exposés. Message + Creative maestro who has an opening for a puppy co-worker with the expectation they stay clear of her pommes frites.
