I am looking for a designer to create an image for [INSERT PRODUCTS HERE – e.g. T-Shirt/Sweatshirt/Hoodie] I am going to be producing and selling.
This design is going to be printed onto actual merchandise. It’s very important then that before I place an order that your offer includes the legal rights to use them for commercial use. I do not want to risk infringing on your copyrights.
SPECIFICATIONS:
I would like it to be similar to the example design I have uploaded. I don’t want to copy it, I would like you to make a better but different version of it (images/text sizing/fonts) so that I don’t infringe on copyrights.
I would like it to feature this text: [INSERT TEXT HERE]
I would also like it to feature an image of [INSERT WHAT IMAGE/ICON YOU WANT]
FORMAT: It needs to be PNG with no interlacing.
SIZE: [INSERT SIZE HERE]
The due date for this project is [INSERT DATE HERE] or sooner.
PRICE: I can pay up to $25 for the design.
Can you take this project on? If so, please reply ASAP with a custom offer so that we can get started. Thank you!
#+END_SRC
** purchase from commericial sites
If you want to create your own Print On Demand products, you’ve got two choices.
The first is that you can purchase stock images on websites like Shutterstock. Artists create images and put the licenses to use them up for sale on there. I’ll teach you how to buy these and yes, when you do buy them, you’ll also purchase the legal rights to use these commercially as well. This is the easiest and fastest way to get pictures.
The second way is you can purchase unique, original designs that have been custom made for you directly from freelancers on websites like Fiverr. If you don’t know what Fiverr is, it is an amazing website where talented freelancers let you purchase projects from them. On Fiverr, there are a LOT of fantastic graph designers specializing in creating graphics for merchandise.
The advantage of purchasing stock images is that you can get the artwork RIGHT NOW, no waiting around, and you can know EXACTLY what you’re getting. This can be especially good if you want to create quick upsells for top-performing products. The downside is of course that anyone else can purchase that image & the rights to use that same artwork.
If your product performs well, chances are, competitors will come in, buy the rights and try to sell the same products as you. Purchasing a custom design then means that there will be an extra barrier in place for your competitors to try and copy you.
In addition, having a custom design made also gives you a lot more flexibility. For example,
This product is a regular seller on Etsy. It’s perfect for people who are both bunny owners & introverts. The phrase choice is quite funny. However, it’s very niche specific isn’t it! It’s unlikely you’d find anything saying this exact phrase on a stock image site. But if you purchase a custom design from Fiverr, you can use it!
Fiverr is a website I use a LOT. I spend thousands of dollars each year hiring talented freelancers. I believe it’s the easiest platform for beginners to use to hire custom designers.
In fact, I use Fiverr so much I’m a part of a secret, invitation-only VIP group for Fiverr called VID – which stands for Very Important Doers. Once you reach VID level, you get your own Fiverr rep who’ll search out the perfect freelancers for you, which is nice. But yes, basically, to become a part of this, I had to use Fiverr a lot. So I know quite a lot about hiring the best designers on there!
On Fiverr, you can usually expect to pay $10-30 per design if you are willing to wait up to a week, and $30-100 per design if you need it made in 1-2 days. So, obviously, if you want to save money, I recommend not being in a rush and be willing to wait a few more days to get your designs made.
This also means it’s cheaper than purchasing pre-made designs on Shutterstock. On Shutterstock, it costs just under $100 per design and you have to buy at minimum 2 pictures at a time. So believe it or not, custom ones are cheaper!
When it comes to hiring designers, I recommend that you start with ONE product, and that you hire 3-5 designers to start, however many are in your budget.
You see, I gained my VID status not from hiring LOTS of freelancers, but by forming a relationship with a handful of really great ones. I come back regularly to them. We’ve formed a relationship over time. They know what I want and can design it for me.
And so your goal here is to ideally find 1 designer whose work you really connect with, so that you can work with them regularly. Now something else you’ll also discover is that some designers are particularly good at certain styles, or specialize in certain styles. For example, this seller is very good at creating typography t-shirts.
You might find that you want different types of art styles for different products. You might want typography graphics, AND you might want cartoony graphics. That’s absolutely fine. In that case, you’ll then want to go through this same process, and find the designer who specializes in that type of style that you connect with the most.
Overtime, the number of freelancers you work with will grow. But for now, I recommend as a beginner you focus on finding just 1 to start with, so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
Of course, it’s entirely up to you if you want to find lots of different types of artists to get products made faster, go for it.
But honestly: business isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. My advice to most new ecommerce owners is to take things slowly and focus initially on just 1 designer. The first thing you want to do, is pick what 1 design you’d like to have made for you.
** example of fiverr process
*** product
So perhaps you’ve seen this sweatshirt. You know the design and phrase has been successful. So you want to use this as inspiration for your own design. Awesome!
What we want to do is now go onto Fiverr and look up top freelancers that make that style of design – in this case word art – and contact between 5-10 freelancers.
What we’re going to do is we will email them directly, telling them what we want exactly.
**** template for email
Here is an example of an email template that you could send out. I’ve included very important specifications here. In particular, I’ve noted the size of the design. You should of course insert your own specifications into where I’ve written the square brackets.
#+BEGIN_SRC text :noweb yes
<<designer-template>>
#+END_SRC
*** determine size of design
The way to figure out what size you want your design to be is to come to Printify.
Click on the product you want to create, such as a sweatshirt, and to start designing it. In the bottom right on the design mockup page you’ll see Printify’s suggested sizing. As a beginner it’s great to stick to this initially.
#+caption: printify design - look at lower right corner for size
You’ll also want to include a picture of what design you would like the designer to get inspiration from. Again, we don’t want to copy it exactly, we want them to make their own similar but different version of it. So for this design, you could keep the same font, but change up the sizing, and change the image of the bunny. So, let’s do this!
*** go back to fiverr
OK, so come to Fiverr. I’ll have a link to Fiverr on this page. Please note that this is an affiliate link. Using it is optional but it’s always appreciated!
**** search for style of artwork
In the search bar, type in what style of artwork you want made. From the dropdown suggested menu, you might find a search phrase that more specifically defines what you want, if so select that. For me, I’m going to type typography design.
**** modify search filters for commerical product sellers
Next, we want to come to the search filters and change it so that we are only seeing sellers that produce designs for commercial products.
**** find rated sellers
Next, we want to set it so that we are only seeing sellers that have been rated by other customers, we don’t want to work with new sellers.
**** browse through final list of sellers
And now you’ve got a big list of sellers to browse through. If possible, try and work with sellers that have 4.8 plus star ratings with at least 50 reviews, the more the better.
When you see a designer than you like, open up their listings and browse through their designs. Check over their portfolio and see if they are right for you. If you like the look of a design, and the pricing is within your range, then click the Contact Me button.
You can then send them a message explaining what you want. Be sure to upload the photo of the example product image or images you want them to get inspiration from.
Again I recommend contacting between 5 to 10 freelancers. See who responds within 24 hours.
Freelancers on Fiverr live all around the world and the best ones are busy working on projects, so it’s normal for them to not respond immediately. But good communication between you and your freelancer is key to having a great relationship in the future, so that they can keep making you money-making designs!
So do prioritize freelancers that get back in touch with you quickly. Now, you might find more freelancers get back in-touch within 24 hours than you can afford to hire for your first project.
That is OK. Take the ones that did reply and browse through their portfolios. Pick the best 3-5 designers you like the most, and hire them.
As part of our message, we asked them to send us a custom offer. This is how we’ll be ordering our design from them. I’ll show you now how to accept this custom offer & start the project.
**** reply to designer
Click Messages, then Inbox. Next, click the message from the designer. To start, simply click ‘order now.’
Once your 3-5 designers have created your image, see which designer you like the most and which one you connected the best with. And order more designs from them!
Once you’ve chosen your preferred freelancer, in the future, you don’t necessarily have to email them and get them to send them a custom order.
Instead, you can order directly from their seller page. I’ll show you now how simple it is to do this.
Going back to the designers page, select the package you want. Then click the green ‘Continue’ button here to proceed to your order.
On the checkout page, you can tick off the Add Extras boxes, these are not entirely necessary if you know exactly what design you want created. To checkout, click ‘Order Now’.
On your order page, you’ll need to send them a note letting them know your specifications.
Remember to include the file type you want, which is a PNG file without interlacing, as this is what Print-On-Demand providers, such as Printify, need from you.
And be sure to include the image size. And, again, if you don’t know what this should be, it’s a great idea to use Printify to help you.
And include an example image of the design you want them to get inspiration from, along with any notes about changes you want them to make, such as color variations or additional images. And boom – you are ready to go. So head on over to Fiverr now, and start finding your perfect designer now!
