I need to come up with some logos that will initially be placed on t-shirts, though they could be used for other purposes later (web, print, etc.). What should I be designing these logos with?

I thought that vector images would be the ticket? If that's the case, is there a single file format that I should be able to come up with that I can hand to anyone (the t-shirt guy, Staples, the business card dude, etc.) and have no problem using it?

Anytime I've ever done a logo for T-shirts, business cards, letterheads and the like I've saved the file as a TIF image. JPEGs lose resolution every time you save them, which is the trade-off for their lower file size. And yes, all print folks can use TIF images.

Some may debate me on this point, but unless your design is elaborate and you're going to use it in some larger format (ie truck panels, posters, etc) you don't need to worry with vector formats. Simple line art isn't going to lose a lot of res in the dimensions you're describing. But create it in the largest dimensions you think you're going to use and shrink down; don't start small and try to increase size.

Thanks for the info. Is there a certain resolution I should shoot for?

In my portfolio site there's a good example of a photo I converted to line art for a logo, one that was used for T-shirts, business cards, letterheads and truck panels. The original TIF image's resolution was 400 ppi. The link is in my sig; look in the graphic design section for the Jacobs Cabinets piece. I think you'll see there that you can make a line art logo pretty elaborate as long as you keep it clean and crisp.

it's good if you work in vector and keep the original, then export as tiff or whatever your printer requires - always check with the printers first what they need as far as format, ppi, cmyk or rgb.

I would go with Tiff but dont forget to keep your original file !

The most universal vector file extension that I know of would be .eps. You can open those in most graphic programs, including Adobe Illustrator.
I do recommend making logos in vector format, but like others have already stated, you will probably want to check with your printer for what file format they want. They probably will not want the vector format, they will probably want a pre-sized file.

I guess the trick would be to make as big as you think you will need, so the only thing to do later is shrink it to the size you need.

Originally Posted by Tom_M

I guess the trick would be to make as big as you think you will need, so the only thing to do later is shrink it to the size you need.

well if the original is vector then it doesn't matter

Look at it this way: If you're going to make a t-shirt graphic, and you're going to make business cards, other smaller stuff out of it, make the t-shirt graphic the size you want. You can get by by using a TIF in this case, though as others have said, if you go vector from the start you'll be more versatile, especially if you're going to go up in size. For instance, in the example I mentioned, when I went up to truck panel and building sign dimensions I exported the hi-res TIF of the image part to an .ai file and re-did the text parts. But when doing T-shirts and smaller I just gave the printer TIFs that I resized. But if you know that you're doing a lot of different sizes, especially large-scale, from the beginning, or think you might, go vector. I'll admit it, when I'm doing smaller scale print stuff I'm lazy.

Thanks for all the good info everyone.