It’s no secret that uniforms are a great way to legitimize your customers’ employees and bring them into line with your company’s branding, but wouldn’t you love to help them design uniforms that people wanted to wear, even if they didn’t have to?  That’s part of the thrust behind the rising trend of retail-inspired uniforms. With the increasing awareness of design, marketing, and branding in the general public, even small businesses have acquired thee taste for controlling every aspect of their look, and many of them want to please employees and customers alike with a nontraditional uniform selection. That’s why I wrote Nontraditional Uniforms for Printwear’s November issue.

In the article, I cover a step by step process to help you design and create a uniform program that brings both style and function to the table. The steps are as follows:

Define a style that fits your customer’s brand: Learn about their business, what they stand for, what they like, what elements comprise their decorative style on-site, like their colors, the textures they use, and the style of their signage and printed materials. Identify some common themes and go look for inspirational retail apparel to fit their culture.

The client’s style is classic, but they like the clean look of this military shirt and simple decoration. Time to remix.

Analyze your Inspirational pieces: Look over the pieces you found to fit their look and discover what makes them unique or applicable to your customer’s style. Isolate important traits in color, finish, cut, design style, complexity, and the like; make a list of the most important identifying characteristics for future reference.

This single-color and carved decoration acts as decoration inspiration for a uniform piece.

Source appropriate garments: Turn to your industry suppliers to find garments that match the style you want while maintaining the function you need. Remember in this step how the garments will be used; you may have to make compromises, but you can always pick an element or two from those discovered in your analysis and hold on to them, even when things like durability and stain resistance may cause you to abandon some more stylistically fit pieces.

Add a similar two-toned, carved decoration pulled from the main logo to a military shirt with stain resistance and we have a stylish uniform piece.

Present before you produce: Make mockups and show your client; this sort of work necessarily puts you further out on a limb than the standard ‘logo on polo’ decorating we’re all used to. Reduce your exposure by presenting your solution in mockup form before you carry on; even when they are prepared to be creatively flexible, you never know when a customer will want to backtrack to a more traditional uniform.

Finish strong: Part of the retail experience is fit and finish; take your time to prep the garments well and make them look their best. Packaging, primping, and presentation are all part of the best package when you are going for a more upscale result.

For more detailed looks at all of these steps along with more pictures and details, check out the full text of the article in the digital edition of November’s Printwear Magazine.