Step 1: Draw It Out

Before putting pen to paper I had to generate the idea first.

To get the idea I see in my head out onto paper is not always easy.

It can sometimes take multiple attempts to get exactly what I am looking for, but with some patience and creativity it eventually comes to life.

Using pen and paper over a tablet is also personal choice.

Adding permanence to the process forces me to keep creating without getting caught up in perfectionism.

I tried to be quick with each design, taking no more than 30 seconds per attempt.

The best ideas come when you just let the ideas flow out.

To the right is a sample of the pineapples I drew.

Once I’ve created one that captures my vision I move on to the next step.

Step 2: Digitize The Design

Since the drawing is on paper, and the design is rather simple, I found it easier to recreate the piece in Adobe Illustrator.

Here I take my time to get the design just right.

Once the pineapple was created I played around with the color to finalize the mood I was going for.

This process took about 15 minutes to complete.

It was looking good at this point, so it was time to move to the final step.

Step 3: Mock Ups

The goal of this stage is to pick a style, hat color, and embroidery dimensions.

It’s important to first pick the style and brand of hat before you get in too deep with the mock ups because you want to make sure they are available.

For this design, I went with a dad hat brand I’ve used before and trust.

I then took various blank-hat pictures from the Internet in this style and put the Illustrator design on each color to see which one looks best.

In this case, I really liked the white and blue hat and decided to use those two.

Next I needed to choose the dimensions for the pineapple in order to the get the sizing of the embroidery how I want it.

For this I cut out pieces of paper to help myself visualize the design and determine the size I like.

This exercise is helpful for all articles of clothing and is a quick and cheap way to validate your decisions.