TLDR: Penji is the best option for speed and quality but Kimp, No Limit Creatives and DesignCrowd are reliable alternatives, contingent upon the budget.
The international licensed merchandise industry exceeds $340 billion. That means, if you can turn your fans into walking advertisements, you have quite the money maker on your hands. However, merch is not enough - merch with proper designs. No one wants a cheap t-shirt with a lame logo or a graphic design service that takes too long and costs too much in freelance hours to find and execute. Therefore, one graphic design service that can help, quickly and at scale is all that's needed. So what graphic design service is best for merch?
Think of a creative agency that's 70% more cost-effective- it's Penji . They're your creative team hub, the definition of human and tech resource. Penji is focused on speed and volume . When creating a merch line, you want designs for hoodies, hats and more - not just a singular tee shirt. Penji allows you unlimited design requests so you can pile everything up in your mind that you think might work.
It's that easy! With 1-2 day design fulfillment, the request is made, and the visualization of your visions is received. Penji has top tier illustrators for custom artwork which renders well on merch.
Price: starting at $499/month with no hidden fees or contracts.
2. Kimp Kimp takes it up a notch and integrates graphic and video services, making it the best option for social media upgrades as well. They're subscription based, unlimited requests and a 24/7 team means things get done swiftly. Plus, they provide high quality vector files which many other services do not provide but you need for printing accuracy.
Price: Graphics plans start at $698.50/month . The video and graphics plan is $995/month.
3. No Limit Creatives No Limit Creatives (NLC) is another contender. Their major service is ad creatives but they also creatively render apparel . NLC boasts a multicultural team from around the globe which means there's a lot of artistic innovation going on here - the perfect feel for an edgy streetwear mashup. They too, like all the other options, boast a fee for service monthly rate so your budgeting stays on task without surprise overage fees for revisions.
Price: Their Graphic plan starts at $500/month .
4. DesignCrowd Finally, DesignCrowd is somewhat of a contest marketplace where you submit a brief and then a number of designers submit ideas to you. This could be helpful if you're not entirely sure what you want since you get a mix of interpretations and only pay for your fave but the quality can be arbitrary which makes it better for one-off endeavors but not long term design partnerships.
Price: You set the budget, with contest packages typically starting around $109 .