A design has to survive every colour offered

A heron, one line, standing on a single reed. It's the same drawing on every shirt in that row, and the shirts are not the same colour.

A design that gets published doesn't get to pick which one a buyer lands on.

Why does a design have to work on a colour its designer didn't choose?

Because the shop sells the colour choice separately from the design.

A design goes up once; the buyer then picks whichever ground they want it on. There's no version of publishing where a drawing is restricted to the two or three colours it was imagined against — every colour on offer is one somebody can actually select, and will.

What kind of design survives any ground?

One built from a single ink and a strong outline — a shape that reads as itself regardless of what's behind it.

The heron is exactly that: one continuous line, no internal shading that depends on the garment showing through. Silhouette-based artwork doesn't ask anything of the ground except contrast, and contrast is available on every ground worth printing on.

What kind of design doesn't make it across?

One that depends on a specific relationship with the background it was designed against.

A drawing built around a particular contrast — a subtle tone-on-tone effect, or shading that assumes a mid-grey behind it — can look considered on the one colour it was built for and fall apart everywhere else. That's the same failure as asking a print to carry more colours than it should. A design like that hasn't been made for a range; it's been made for one ground, with the rest as places it doesn't quite work.

Why does the ink itself change between grounds?

Because a light drawing on a light shirt is invisible, so the ink has to flip.

On darker grounds a pale mark reads clearly, so the drawing prints in cream. On paler ones it prints in charcoal instead, and the same silhouette stays legible. That crossover point — not the individual colours — is the one decision that actually matters; everything on either side of it takes care of itself.

What if a design only really works on a couple of grounds?

Then it's a design for those grounds, and it's worth knowing that before publishing rather than after.

The shop doesn't let a design hide on the colours it doesn't suit — every colour a buyer can select is one they'll see it on. Picking a ground the design earns is a different question from this one; this one is whether it earns all of them at once.

How do I get one made?

Describe the design at JustOG — a garment, and the grounds worth checking it against. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the shop.

One drawing, many grounds, and one ink that knows which side of dark it's on.