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What I did in work today for my wife and I

Here's a black and white version Michigan-StateSeal-BW.svg

Is it infringement? Probably. Will anyone say anything? Probably not if it's just 2 shirts. Just not worth it to them.

Not my best work, just quick and dirty but maybe it will help you out. Shadow.svg

did these for a couple buddies over the weekend, they were fun to do.

Pretty simple pattern. I just recreated it from scratch. pattern.eps

Like I said custom mark-s

I think the G from Lobster would work. http://www.whatfontis.com/Lobster.font?text=Geoff%20Dodds%20Transport The rest is similar to Billabong except for the D and T. Nowhere near perfect but it could help. http://www.whatfontis.com/Billabong-Italic.font?text=Geoff%20Dodds%20Transport

The three intellectual property attorneys in this thread agreed and the fourth estate planning half way agreed that you will be covered under fair use on making your own shirt. Can't hire someone to do it for you. This is the same exact advice that I got from an attorney friend who has kids that play on the same team as mine. (I asked him for some pro-bono advice last year) http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/can-i-legally-use-a-trademarked-college-logo-on-a--1487256.html

Nice. Very Nightmare Before Christmas-esk.

Well I give free shipping on everything I just add it into the price of the item and they think they are getting a deal...

Mine keeps the last used settings.

Copyright probably not but trademark can protect the look of fonts and all sorts of things. Bottom line is whether or not you are going to be selling them for any reason including a fund raiser. Copyright does protect anything that is even inspired by the original or that may confuse a customer into thinking that they are buying an original.

I'm certainly no authority on copyright or trademark law but I have done some research including physically talking to a couple attorneys and an official licensing authority. Copyright protection protects certain things and trademark protects other things. Without going into all the bloody details, the college licensing people I talked to told me (I was asking if I could get permission to make my daughter a sweatshirt with the College logo) that if I possessed the ability to make my own for myself then I wasn't breaking any laws. Now if I was going to sell them that would be a different story. Also giving them away may be construed to be "diluting" the market which is one of the provisions within trademark protection so there is even some potential trademark infringement by giving away copies but it is a more ambiguous statement and I think they would have to prove the value of damages which for a sweatshirt are pretty much non existent. The college did ask politely that I follow the constraints they had set up for use of the logo so as to keep the brand in control, which I did out of respect.

I wish I had a dollar for every sports team in this country that called itself the Rebels.

Extra work (creating 2 designs from scratch using crappy pictures) = higher price. I'd be in the $500 range especially if I had to wash the guys trailer on a job site.Consider what the other shops said. Almost 400 with basically cut-ready artwork. Are you going to give away the two hours you spent sitting at the computer designing for free?

A little extra thrown at the cutter will be better money spent than about anything else. I actually talked with the people at USCutter in person and they helped me make an intelligent choice. ANY cutter you buy will come with a learning curve and you may at first be a little upset until you get it figured out. Then you will have a blast and become the life of the party and all your dreams will come true. I started out with a 48" P-Cut and only occasionally cut 30" vinyl and only then because it happened to be the size of a specific color I needed that the local supplier only had in stock 30" wide. When I upgraded to a high end cutter I went down to a 30" Rarely do I do any jobs that I even need the 30". (Summa's only come 30" or larger so it was the smallest available). If you stick with it and have even the smallest ability in you you can make the machine pay for itself without too much trouble. I don't advertise or anything and have work coming out of my ears most of the time. once people figure out you can do it then they come in droves. If you can swing the cost I recommend you also buy at least a cheap 15"x15" heat press so you can do heat transfer vinyl on shirts. You will be glad you did and make even more money. Wait, you don't live around my home town do you? If so just ignore everything I just said, you really don't want to get into this line of work it's just a money pit.

I've been cutting for 2 years or more and just this past week I decided to try my luck on eBay. That's why your sales are down. Not because I'm getting your sales but because my luck is so bad that it's contagious. Lol

Figured I would show a little of my work with shirts! First one I did for a buddy back in Dallas! He wanted one for his Buick that has a Cummins swapped into it! I found a picture of his car and traced it out and this is the finished product! The second one I did for my self. Being a transplant from Dallas and now in Colorado, I wanted something to represent that with this shirt. I put Colorado on the front (Looking forward) and Texas on the back (Looking behind). I was pretty pleased with the outcome. My wife was as well, since she's been wearing it since it was made. I haven't had the chance to wear it myself.

This guy must have know what his day was going to be like when he picked out his shirt. He was arrested for bank robbery and this is his mug shot. On his shirt: "It's all fun and games until the cops show up"