Threadless Mug Review Compilation

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Threadless Mug Review Compilation
I've scoured the web for all the reviews I could find of Threadless mugs to help you buy or design for them. Real photos from the Threadless community.

Introduction

Designing for Threadless mugs can be challenging. Their uploader-specified dimensions are different to their template dimensions, both look weird in the uploader and different again when published. Aaahhh! What is an artist to do!? Well, I decided to look all over the internet for other people’s photos of their Threadless mugs, so we can have a look at how the published products compare to how they look online.

Microbial Medley by Hodgepodge Bricolage

Hodgepodge Bricolage is a store that has a strong focus on patterns featuring cells, viruses, and other imagery of a medical nature.
There is a blog post by the artist that shows off several Threadless products, including a [presumingly 11oz] mug with the design ‘Microbial Medley’.
Here’s what they had to say about Threadless mugs…


“the mugs are semi-annoying because the print doesn’t continue under the handle, so if you get a seamless pattern from me that doesn’t have a white background, it doesn’t look as awesome as it could be”

Photo of a mug with an abstract microbial design

And here is how the same mug looks in their online Threadless store:

Photo of a mug with an abstract microbial design

Cozy and Despairing by Foxshiver

A GoodReads blog post happened to show off a [presuming 15oz] mug purchased by ‘karen’, with a design titled ‘Cozy and Despairing’.

Photo of a mug with a sad cat. The design has partially rubbed off. Black background.

A quick Googling revealed that this design was by the store FoxShiver. And here is how the mug looks in their store:

Photo of a mug with a sad cat and the words 'cozy & despairing'. Art by Foxshiver
The Threadless mockup makes the artwork look somewhat horizontally stretched. It looks narrower on the real-life photograph. So if you are buying a mug, you need to be aware that the art will look narrower on your purchased item.

Also, this design is on the front of the mug only, which leads me to assume the artist uploaded a transparent .png that was automatically centred. Though the art does not look centred on the Threadless mockup, it does look centred in real life. So we can trust that just uploading the image is enough, we don’t need to manually centre the design.

The Universe Salutes You by James Victore

The next photograph I found came from Twitter. User James Vitore posted this image of a [presumably 150z] mug.

Photo of a mug on a table in front of ferns. The mug has art of a scribble raising his mug to you.
Photo of a mug that has art of a scribble raising his mug to you, along with the text 'The Universe Salutes You'.

Conclusion

Let’s summarise the lessons learned here today:

  • Artwork printed on the mug will possibly have a few millimetres cut off on the upper and lower edges
  • Artworks appear wider online than they are in real life
  • Fine details can be successfully printed
If you have any Threadless mug photos to share, please comment below and I’ll include them here 🙂
Peace, love and sunshine,
Handwritten calligraphy-style signature that says 'Jessica' with a heart dotting the i