When I first opened up the doors to my business, I didn't know how much advertising I should do. Instead of going after printed advertisement space and taking out radio spots, I decided to let my company speak for itself. I tried to encourage other people to spread the word, but for some reasons, I just couldn't get off of the ground. I started thinking about what might work, and I realized that printed advertisements might be the way to go. Unfortunately, my first flyers weren't super professional. I decided to work with a graphic design company, who helped me to print professionally. That's when things started taking off. Read my website for more helpful tips regarding successful advertising.
Custom T-shirts can be a great way to identify yourself and your sorority sisters at an event or draw attention to yourselves during rush week when you're trying to recruit new pledges. But the question is, how do you set your sorority apart from every other sorority doing the same thing? And how can you use the space on a T-shirt to show what your sorority is really all about? You need a great design to show off everything that's great about you and your sisters. Here are a few ideas that you can use as a starting point for creating your own unique design.
Go Classic
One design that never goes out of style is the classic Greek letters of your sorority house. Wearing the Greek letters big and bold across your chest says, "this is my sorority, and I'm proud of it." Make them stand out by choosing bright, contrasting colors, or going with a simple design of black letters on a white background, or vice versa.
If you're making shirts for rush week, consider putting the words "ask me about" above the Greek letters, and spell out the name of the sorority below. It's a simple design, but it's memorable and visible, and may well stand out from the crowd because of its simplicity among a crowd of shirts that are busier and harder to read and remember. Sometimes the classics really are the best options.
Call to History
Use your shirts to share a little bit of knowledge about sorority history. Sororities serve an important function in the Greek system, and in universities generally. Unlike fraternities, which have existed in some form in the U.S. ever since the country was founded, sororities emerged in a time when higher education for women was still looked upon as an anomaly, or even a waste of resources. Coeds had fewer opportunities and less access to student organizations that could offer support and help them achieve, and sororities were created to fill that need. The first sorority – though it wasn't called that at the time – was founded in 1851.
Consider a call to history on your T-shirts. Something like, "Achieving Excellence Through Sisterhood since 1851" would be likely to pique the interest of people passing by and reading your shirts, and it promotes bonding among your sorority sisters by reminding each of you of your shared history. If it seems more appropriate, you may want to use the year of your particular sorority's founding instead of the year of the first sorority's founding. You could also substitute your sorority's primary function for "achieving excellence". For example, if your sorority focuses on doing good works in the community, your shirts could say, "Serving the [City Name] Community Through Sisterhood".
Custom Artwork
Lettering, words, and catchy phrases aren't the only things that you can use to design a T-shirt. You can also draw eyes to your group when you need to by using pictures or artwork. Does your group have a mascot or a pet? Take a photograph or have someone artistic in your group draw a fun, creative sketch, and have that image added to your group's T-shirts.
If that doesn't work, there are other images that you can use on your shirts. Are you making shirts for a summer or winter event? For summer, adorn your T-shirts with stylized suns or beach umbrellas. For a winter event, think snowmen, Santa Clauses, and stockings.
Whatever design you decide on, having a good source for T-shirt printing will only make it better. Look for a print shop, like The Houndstooth Press, that will help you perfect your design, offer the option of embroidery as well as print (a great choice for Greek Letters) and be able to handle a bulk order in a timely manner.
Share5 June 2015
