Photo by Guliy_art / Freepik
Halloween is one of the most playful times of the year for fashion. Not only are people encouraged to dress up in costume, but leading up to the holiday, many are sporting ensembles with everything from pumpkins to tributes to their favorite horror movies. So if you’re thinking of adding some spookiness to your clothing brand, let’s discuss the serious and fun aspects.
Create your own Halloween designs
You usually can’t go wrong with creating your own Halloween designs for sweatshirts. But then, it’s time to take out the sketch pad and Halloween-patterned pencils and get drawing. Having great erasers on hand is also essential to eliminate mistakes or smudges.
Once finished, scan the drawing and get it into a program like GIMP or Adobe Illustrator to clean it up and perfect it. Don’t worry if you’re not an expert at a particular program. Instead, find a tutorial that offers step-by-step instructions for digitizing your drawing in a specific manner and putting it into a particular program.
When you have belief in and passion for what you’re doing, it’s easy for that to translate into your art, so don’t be afraid to have some fun and play with your designs and Halloween sweatshirt ideas. If there’s any holiday to exceed the norm with your creations, it’s Halloween. When you have your thoughts set, consider running them past people in your trusted circle for feedback on what’s perfect and what might benefit from some tweaking.
Research copyright law
As enjoyable as Halloween is, when you have a business creating and selling Halloween sweatshirts or other items or services, there’s always a severe undercurrent that requires awareness of copyright law, among other legal aspects. Copyright law is a serious matter, so you must do research before putting out any products. In addition, these laws can vary by location, search based on where you do business to learn as much about it as possible.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact a legal professional who can assist with the proper steps, answer any questions, help you better understand what you can and can’t do, and protect your ideas. Although overwhelming and tedious to learn as much as possible about copyright law, the more you know, the better.
Get inspired by the season
Now back to the fun aspects of coming up with Halloween sweatshirt ideas for the season. Sitting at home staring at the wall isn’t going to get the creative ideas flowing, but immersing yourself in spookiness might.
Halloween is all around you during fall, and even though it’s likely too late to incorporate your designs into this season’s sweatshirts, it’s never too early to get a head start on the inspiration for next year’s designs. Go to corn mazes, haunted attractions, pumpkin patches, and other Halloween-themed places, and focus on having a great time. Take plenty of pictures, look around, feel the excitement, and absorb the entire atmosphere. Don’t just look at a surface level; take your time and check out small details many might miss. You never know when inspiration could strike.
It can be a little challenging throughout the rest of the year to get inspired for Halloween when you’re not surrounded by creepy decorations and smiling Jack o’ Lanterns everywhere you turn. However, you can still find inspiration for your creative Halloween sweatshirt ideas.
One option is to have a horror movie marathon, and it’s even better with your family or friends to see what grabs their interest and has that scare or creep factor. Another option is to take guided tours and respectfully learn about events that influenced history or a specific location. For example, you can take tours of historic prisons, visit Salem, Massachusetts, or take cemetery tours.
Don’t worry about coming up with ideas during the activity and experience. Instead, focus on what you’re doing and let the ideas and inspiration come to you, whether you’re still involved in the action, on the way home, or later. Once the inspiration happens, however, get the idea or drawing on paper immediately or input notes about the idea into your phone – so you don’t accidentally forget.
Choose to clothe for the season
Chances are, when you think about what you’re wearing during fall, shorts, tank tops, and the like aren’t what come to mind. Instead, comfy pullovers, oversized sweatshirts, cropped fleece hoodies, and the Bella + Canvas Unisex Sponge Fleece Drop Shoulder Sweatshirt are options that have the style and warmth you crave during chilly days. But, of course, warm and cozy is more of what you desire, whether you’re walking around jumping on crunchy fallen autumn leaves or you’re curled up on the couch at home watching bad horror movies during a particularly frigid evening.
Sure, some still wear warm-weather attire even as the temperatures drop, but the stores offer jackets and long-sleeve tops for a reason, which means those are options you should utilize for your clothing brand for the cold months.
Many will likely stop wearing Halloween-inspired sweatshirts once November comes, but some options could easily continue depending on the design. For example, while someone would likely stop wearing a Happy Halloween hoodie as of October 31st, one with the image of a skeleton could easily be a viable clothing option beyond the holiday. Evaluate your design creations and look through fall and winter sweatshirt styles to determine which pairings would be best for your clothing brand.
There’s no doubt fashion is fast-paced, but remember you must have patience with yourself and the process. While there are deadlines you need to meet if you want to release Halloween sweatshirts in time for the holiday, you also don’t want to put out subpar creations for the sake of just releasing anything. Make sure what you’re offering your customers is something with confidence.