# Haunt Con/other haunts crew shirts



## hauntedhilltx (Apr 12, 2013)

After attending last weeks Hauntcon last week I noticed many haunters representing their haunts with black dickie style short sleave black shirts.Can anyone tell me where to get these along with who does the printing? Thanks Gary


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

I attended national haunters last weekend and we attended wearing our corpse crew shirt. Some of our shirts we made ourselves with silk screening. Otherwise our shirts come from local vendors. Every major town usualy has a sign maker or printing company that can also do shirts. A name here in syracuse new York is Holy Shirt.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

You might look at places like CustomInk.com. There, you can setup or send in artwork, try it on different types, colors, and brands of shirts, hoodies, etc., and try different sizes and placement of the artwork too. All of the setup and shipping are free, and you can get just a few to several thousand shirts, and even mix up the type, color, etc., (other than size and placement of the art) without any issues.
But like other screen printers, you need to allow them time to do their work, and understand that if you are going to setup artwork on their site, that you will be using common clipart, typefaces, etc., with every other haunter. If you want to setup your own artwork, you need to find out what they need/want and build your artwork accordingly. Garbage in, garbage out.
If you want colorful shirts in small numbers, you can do heat transfer shirts yourself or through someone like Cafepress.com They tend to not last as long as screen printed shirts, but you can do them quickly without paying wild amounts for using lots of colors.

Good looking T-shirts are a great way to advertise your haunt, and they can be used as giveaways, and or as incentive for staff/actors in your haunt. If you do very attractive shirts, you may find a market for them at the haunt itself, or other gatherings leading up to the haunt. Ideally, your shirt should be so attractive that people want to wear it not because they survived your haunt, but because they like the look of the shirt on themselves. I've seen way too many shirts from haunts, family reunions, etc., in thrift shops, and the reason is that the shirts may have been "unique" or okay for the actual celebration but the people didn't like the look well enough to hang onto it and wear it themselves.


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## hauntedhilltx (Apr 12, 2013)

Thank you both very much! We had shirts made two years ago but when they came in many did not want to pay so I had about $500 in shirts that I had in storage(which sadly went up in flames along with 80% of our props due to our shop/storage fire 3weeks ago).I never thought of doing it myself with the heat transfers and I will sure check out the website you recomended.Again thanks to you both


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I was at HauntCon in my Hauntforum T-shirt. Between my Hauntforum and HauntCast I have a weeks worth of shirts,and I don't have to wear the same shirt twice.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

hauntedhilltx said:


> Thank you both very much! We had shirts made two years ago but when they came in many did not want to pay so I had about $500 in shirts that I had in storage(which sadly went up in flames along with 80% of our props due to our shop/storage fire 3weeks ago).I never thought of doing it myself with the heat transfers and I will sure check out the website you recomended.Again thanks to you both


If you are going to do dark or black shirts with heat transfers, you need to get different transfer material than the standard stuff, and you may need/want to either set the background color to the same as the shirt (that can be tough to do), or create a background that sets off your artwork. Heat transfer material for dark shirts has an opaque white background to let the color in your design be visible.
Give me a scream if you need or want help with the artwork or setup.
You can drop me a PM with contact info for you.


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## hauntedhilltx (Apr 12, 2013)

"SCAREME" I am sure we crossed paths.Wish I could have met with you."Fontgeek" Thanks for your tips,I will get with you next week when I am off again.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Just keep in mind the uses and limitations you will have for your artwork. All to often people come up with really colorful artwork, or artwork that is too intricate or out of proportion with what they can actually use. Like listening to a high end set of speakers first, you will never be satisfied with what you can actually afford because you have heard/seen something you idealize, but will probably never be able to get or use.
If you are going to do screen printed/silk screened shirts, then, ideally, you want to keep your artwork simple and using as few colors as you can, and avoid shading/halftones, for screen printing, you either lay down ink or you don't, so the color is there or it isn't. Think of the process like you would using a stencil and a roller, that's basically what you have to deal with. Use the shirt or paper color as part of the design, it's there and doesn't cost you anything to use, so get the most for your money. They will use the same artwork on every size shirt (normally) so you need to scale your design for the smallest size shirt you will produce.
From the fashion industry side of things, you should keep bulk of your artwork so that it will fit within the "critical" space, that is, between the nipples of your end wearer. For adults, the body tends to go to almost right angles from the nipples on most people, so visually, any artwork that sits outside the critical space may not be seen. Lots of people have lost the message they hoped to convey because parts of it ended up on the sides or under the arms of the wearer.

For most screen printing companies, you need to order a minimum of at least a gross of any particular size, style, and color. So, unless you are fairly rich, you need to decide carefully. When in doubt, always order the shirts a little larger. People will wear baggier shirts, but tend to avoid shirts that are too tight or that constrict movement.


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