Inspirational Hoodie Design Ideas for the Perfect Pullover

Hoodies are one of the most popular garments out there – and for good reason. They’re the perfect versatile way to showcase your personality, while staying comfortable and warm in all seasons. Plus, with endless design options to choose from, hoodies can be surprisingly stylish too.

These handy wardrobe staples are ideal whether you’re keeping warm around the house, driving to work, or talking a walk with your pooch. For small businesses, the hoodie represents a fantastic garment to include in any fashion collection. If you’re thinking of developing your own merch or fashion brand, companies like NovaTomato can help you to produce products with stunning, eye-catching designs, without spending a fortune.

The biggest challenge is simply figuring out what to include on your hoodie design. That’s why we created this list of inspirational ideas to get you on the right track.

Aesthetic Hoodie Designs

Aesthetic hoodie designs are inspired by visual or artistic trends. Think about the stunning geometric hoodies you’ve seen produced by major labels, or the gorgeous custom hoodies you’ll find in fashion stores, sporting minimalistic patterns. Here are some great ideas for an aesthetic hoodie illustration.

Minimalistic Hoodies

You don’t need to make a big splash with your hoodie design for it to be attractive. Minimalist illustrations, designs, and images are a huge trend right now. You could choose something simple, like an outline of a bird, or a sketch of a flower. Or you might make a statement with a single word relevant to your personality.

To maintain the minimalist vibe, stick to simple colors, like earthy tones, or black and white.

Nostalgic Hoodies

Everyone has a soft space in their heart for nostalgic designs. In fact, retro and vintage images have become pretty popular in recent years. To create a more nostalgic hoodie design, try experimenting with retro prints, bright colors, and bold, blocky fonts.

If you need a little inspiration, try looking for art prints from the 70s and 80s, or check out some designers from decades past. You’re sure to get some great ideas by looking up previous creations from names like Andrew Laug or Alexander McQueen.

Artistic Hoodies

If you have an artistic side, why not incorporate some of the illustrations, paintings, and sketches of your favorite artists into your custom hoodies? You’ll just need to be careful you’re not violating any copyrights or patent protections when you’re uploading your vector to a custom hoodie website.

If you can’t use an exact copy of the image you like from your favorite artist, consider creating something similar yourself with a design tool. Alternatively, you can find a huge range of artistic pieces online which are free to use for personal projects.

Geometric Hoodies

Geometric hoodies are great for those who want to create a cool, trendy look. You can use abstract shapes and sharp lines on your hoodies to create a fantastic aesthetic. Consider blocking contrasting colors together, to really make your design stand out. Or blend a range of different shapes into a new design, such as hexagons and circles.

If you want to get really creative, you could consider combining squares and triangles, among other shapes, into a repeating pattern, which you could place around the hem and sleeves of your hoodie.

Company Hoodie Design Ideas

The days of banning hoodies from the office are long gone for most businesses. What’s more, with more people working from home these days, hoodies have become a staple of the home-office wardrobe. For business leaders, delivering a well-designed hoodie to employees could be a great way to reinforce company culture and keep teams engaged.

Here are some great options for a company or corporate hoodie.

Branded Hoodies

Create a hoodie that includes an uploaded vector image of your business corporate logo. You could even put contact details on the back so customers know how to get in touch with you. This is a great way to promote your business if you’re running a small company. Plus, it’s a fantastic option for business leaders who want to turn team members into brand advocates.

Industry Focused Hoodies

Design a hoodie that incorporates well-known images and components from the industry you work in. For instance, if you’re involved in the cosmetics industry, you could create a pattern made up of different pieces of makeup, like lipsticks and eye-shadow palettes. If you’re in the technology industry, you could create a hoodie with a geometric design made up of computer screens and wires in a range of different colors.

Definition Hoodies

The perfect gift idea for a co-worker: create a hoodie that defines the job title of the person in question. For a teacher, you might create a hoodie that shares the “dictionary” definition of “teacher” in bold font. It might say something like “Lives to inspire the next generation”, or “The person really raising your kids”, if you want to get a little cheeky.

Couple Hoodie Designs Ideas

Creating a pair of couple hoodies is a great way to celebrate an anniversary, or give a gift to your loved one. After all, the chances are you and your partner constantly share hoodies most of the time anyway. There are plenty of great options to make your hoodie unique to your relationship, such as:

Matching Hoodies

Create a matching set of two hoodies for you and your partner. You could include images of things that naturally go together, such as ketchup and mayo, or salt and pepper. Or you could highlight the shared passion that brought you together. For instance, why not try a “Player 1” and “Player 2” hoodie for a pair of gaming fanatics?

Anniversary Hoodies

As mentioned above, the right hoodie designs can be perfect for celebrating a special event like an anniversary. This option could be a particularly good idea if you want to celebrate your “cotton” anniversary, or something similar.

Consider choosing a hoodie with your names embroidered on it, or the date when you first got together. You could even use the date of your marriage.

Initials or Monograms

Sleek and stylish, a monogrammed hoodie is an excellent way to celebrate your relationship without being too over-the-top. You can keep things simple with a little embroidered set of initials on the sleeve of your hoodie or the bottom of the hem. Or you could choose something more dramatic, with large, bold letters on the back or front of your streetwear.

Funny Hoodie Designs Ideas

Etsy and other sites are filled with humorous hoodie designs. After all, a hoodie isn’t just a great way to stay warm, it’s also a fantastic way to show off your personality. Creating a funny custom hoodie will ensure you have something to make you smile with you at all times. You might even get a chuckle or two out of your friends and family.

Joke Hoodies

A good joke is like a fine wine, it only gets better with time. Opt for a simple joke that keeps you smiling, even after you’ve heard it a million times. You could even select a joke that’s relevant to the industry you work in, or to your hobbies. Bonus points if your hoodie makes your friends laugh when they see it for the first time.

Meme Hoodies

Memes have become a huge social movement in the last few years, and everyone seems to have their favorite example. There are even meme generators online, where you can create your own memes to share with friends and loved ones. If you’ve ever had a particular meme sent to you that you just can’t stop laughing at, it’s probably a great option for a hoodie.

Funny Images

There are plenty of free funny illustration options and designs on the web that you can convert into a hoodie. Or you could even consider sketching a little miniature comic of your own. The options are endless, just try to make sure your hoodie isn’t going to offend anyone, particularly if you’re going to be wearing it everywhere.

Hoodie Designs Ideas for Birthdays or Gifts

Since hoodies are so universally loved in the fashion world, they also make for a fantastic gift. The great thing about buying someone a hoodie rather than another item of clothing or streetwear (like a shirt or a set of yoga pants), is you don’t really need to know their size. If the hoodie is a little too big, it’s just going to be extra comfy. Try these ideas when creating a gift hoodie.

Personalized Hoodies

Create a hoodie specific for the person you’re celebrating. If it’s someone’s birthday, you could include the date when they were born, and even the flower for the month of their birth. Check out this list of monthly birth flowers online for inspiration. Alternatively, you could just make someone a hoodie with their own name on it.

Hobby Hoodies

Show how much you understand someone’s passions and hobbies, by incorporating them into your hoodie design. You can source ideas from your community of friends of you’re not entirely sure what the person in question loves the most. Options can include everything from skateboarding and gaming motifs, to gardening quotes and more.

Hoodie Design Ideas for Causes

As you can see from all the hoodie designs, we’ve covered so far, there’s plenty of ways you can showcase unique aspects of your personality with the right hoodie. You can even use your hoodie as a way to draw attention to the causes you care about most, such as:

Sustainability Hoodies

Show your commitment to protecting the planet with a hoodie that highlights your eco-friendly attitude. You could choose to add a phrase like “There’s no Planet B”, or just include the logo of the non-profit community you want to support. For extra bonus points, make sure you work with a brand who can create your hoodie using eco-friendly materials, like Nova Tomato.

Animal Rights

Everyone loves animals – at least, most people do. A great animal rights hoodie will draw attention to your stance on anything from animal testing, to saving the bees. You can even create a hoodie with a powerful statement, which also includes an image of some gorgeous animals.

Awareness Hoodies

Since you wear your hoodie wherever you go, it’s a fantastic way to draw attention to an under-recognized cause. Think about the things you want to raise awareness for, whether it’s mental health, autism, or LGBTQ rights. You can find plenty of great quotes and pictures online to help you champion your cause.

Hoodie Designs Ideas for Holidays

Hoodies are ideal for all times of year, including festive celebrations. If you’re the kind of person who lives in your hoodie, it might be worth looking at some designs you can create for specific times of year, ranging from Christmas to Halloween. Here are some great ideas to try:

Halloween Hoodies

You don’t have to dress up at Halloween to get into the spirit. Consider taking an image or illustration from your favorite scary movie and adding it to a Halloween hoodie. You could always experiment with different Halloween-style motifs too, such as bats, pumpkins, and candy corn. Or why not create a hoodie in orange with a carved out smile to turn yourself into a jack o lantern?

Thanksgiving Hoodies

Hoodies are probably the perfect garment to wear on Thanksgiving. They hide your bulging stomach after a big meal, and give you all the comfort and warmth you need to snooze after binging on turkey. Experiment with autumnal colors like red, orange, and yellow and add your own Thanksgiving motif. You could also include a “Happy Thanksgiving” slogan.

Christmas Hoodies

When the weather turns cold around Christmas, you’re going to need your hoodie, but that doesn’t mean you want to dampen the festive vibe. Consider switching your ugly Christmas sweater out for a bright and tacky hoodie this holiday season. Or why not add some fun Christmas elements into your design, like snowflakes and reindeer?

New Year’s Eve Hoodies

Ring in the New Year from a place of comfort with a hoodie designed specifically for New Year’s Eve. You can choose metallic colors like silver and gold to really draw attention to the celebration. Or you could include images of fireworks. You might even create a hoodie with the date of the new year written on it, such as “Happy 2024”.

How Can NovaTomato Help You to Create Your Custom Hoodies

Creating custom hoodies hasn’t always been easy. Even if you’ve been able to source custom community designs or create your own illustrations, you might have had to pay a fortune to have someone make your hoodie for you. Even Etsy hoodies can come with a high price point.

Fortunately, with NovaTomato, creating a custom hoodie has never been easier. Our custom design tool makes it easy to make the hoodie of your dreams in no time, with all the colors and components you like. Our AI technology will even help you to make the most out of your designs!

Once you’ve designed your hoodie, you can hand the rest of the work over to us. We work with world-leading manufacturers to print your designs onto high-quality fabrics, that are as comfortable and durable as they are fashionable. Plus, we can even produce hoodies using sustainable fabrics and inks, so you know you’re not damaging the planet. It’s a win win!

There are no minimum order requirements with us, so you can make as many or as few hoodies as you like, in the sizes of your choice! Get in touch today to find out more!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are the Different Ways to Style a Hoodie?

There are plenty of ways to style a hoodie, whether you’re looking to make a fashion statement, or just dress casually. Pair a hoodie with a great pair of jeans for a classic look, or dress up by placing your hoodie over a stunning dress.

What Is the Best Way to Design a Hoodie?

Using NovaTomato’s design tool, you can create the perfect hoodie in no time. There are plenty of patterns, colors, styles and fonts to choose from, to ensure your hoodie is completely unique to you. Once you’re done designing, we handle the rest of the work for you!

How Do You Make a Hoodie Trendy?

You can make a hoodie trendy by paying attention to the latest styles and trends in the fashion industry. Use aesthetic strategies like minimalism and geometric patterns to really make a visual impact. Or just style your hoodie with some accessories. You could even add popular slogans from social media to your hoodies, or recreate designs you spot on celebrities attending hot events.