Successfully Design A Reversible Jersey
Our Reversible Raglan has received a lot of attention since we introduced it to the world. Many of you have jumped at the opportunity of creating your own design for your school, club, and league teams! While we love the enthusiasm from the community, we want to make sure you equally love your jerseys – and this product requires a few special considerations at the design stage.
Creating art for a great reversible jersey can be tough, so we're here to share a few tips we've learned along the way. Grab a pen and a notebook, we're about to get technical!
REVERSIBLE TANK & REVERSIBLE JERSEY DESIGN TIPS
A DARK/BRIGHT OR A DARK/DARK
All sublimated fabric is originally white on both sides – flip any of your sublimated jerseys inside out to see what we mean. See how the reverse side of your jersey is mostly white, yet you can still see the design (or parts of the design) showing through slightly? That's the most important detail to keep in mind when designing a piece of reversible gear: art aspects from one side will show through to the other.
We've tested multiple possible solutions, such as colour matching, art matching/mirroring, shade matching... unfortunately the only way to success is by designing either two dark sides, or a dark side and a bright side.
PATTERNS TO THE RESCUE
Use background patterns! Look at the Raglan Reversible pictured below. Technically, this could be seen as a dark (the red Cherry Blossom side) and a light (grey Fuji side).
It works as there are patterns on both sides of the jersey, which helps to disguise the pattern showing through from the other side. This is the only way the VC production team will approve a dark/light reversible design.
Notice how the background patterns (the circular shapes) are used successfully on both sides? You can certainly some bleed through, but it still looks great!
COLOUR WHEEL FOR THE WIN
Contrasting colours will cancel each other out, so it's better to keep colours within a similar family. We suggest you use the colour wheel below to help with this during your next design project.
Here's the best way to use it:
- Pick colours from a similar family or from the same side of the colour wheel. This will make sure they complement each other.
- Bleed-through will change colours! Using blue on one side and yellow on the other may result in visible green. Oops! Try to use this to your advantage instead – we had an order recently requesting a red side and a pink side. It worked great because the bleed-through from the red side complemented the pink side!
- Watch out for big contrast between light and dark colours – the darker you go on one side, the darker you will need to go on the other side.
WHITE WON'T WORK
Avoid any white areas because these will show a lot of bleed-through (see earlier image). White won't ever look truly white once you've pressed art on the opposite side, so it's best to avoid it.
CONTRAST STITCHING
The stitching and collar will use the same colours on both sides, so choose options that work with the design on both sides.
The exposed stitching and binding is a great place to add some contrast colour for that extra POP!
PLAN AHEAD, AND TAKE THE TIME TO GET IT RIGHT
Don't rush the process! We want to be absolutely sure your jerseys will look great, which means taking the time to do test prints and adjustments.
It's best to start the process early! If you have an idea in mind, email us, fill out our interest form or submit a design review/request form.
SUCCESS!
That's it! If you take these tips into consideration, we guarantee you will love the final product. While the Reversible Raglan jersey may take a bit more time and attention during the design process, the resulting product will look great, will cost you less than a full kit, and even reduces our environmental footprint by utilizing less fabric – it's a win-win-win!
If you'd like to start designing your next Reversible team order, let's talk. If you have any questions about sizing or turnaround time visit the Reversible Raglan product page.