Think about what you want a T-shirt design to tell the world. You may simply want a wordless, unique design. If so, you'll need to decide between a cheerful design or a somber design. If you want words, you'll need to decide if you want a phrase that inspires, offends, amuses or makes a statement. Alternatively, you may just want a T-shirt that really speaks to who you are.
Knowing what you're looking for makes the search for design ideas easier.
A great way to generate design ideas is by going through your "favorites" list. Think about your favorite books, movies, music, poems, speeches, artwork and places. This can inspire quotes, images and statements that are all meaningful to you.
If you have traveled around the world and your favorite place was Istanbul, maybe you want to make an "I Love Istanbul" T-shirt. While it's not the most original, it does having meaning to you and it's not your typical "I Love New York" T-shirt.
No matter what you love, it's hard to sift through the "favorites" list without coming away with something that would be great on a T-shirt.
If you want a chiefly wordless design, designbyhumans.com and threadless.com are both comprehensive sites for men and women that offer hundreds of different, uniquely designed T-shirts. These shirts are designed by people just like you. In fact, if you have a design idea that they don't offer, you can submit it through their website and you might even earn a little cash.
If you want a T-shirt with a statement and still haven't come up with anything, the Internet is a great source. Use a search engine to pull up a list of famous or funny quotes, for example.
If you don't necessarily want a quote, check out customink.com, which not only lets you create your own T-shirt designs, but also has a section with design templates and inspiration. No matter what the occasion -- from humorous to holidays to sports -- they have many different ideas for you.
If you've chosen to go with your own idea or statement, or are simply inspired by a design or statement you saw on one of the other T-shirt sites, you can make your own by uploading text, logos and photos on sites like customink.com and zazzle.com. Unless you are ordering in bulk, you can usually expect to pay between $15 and $25 per shirt.