Red Bubble Tips - Mug Design

Red Bubble recently announced the addition of mugs to the range of items offered for sale. 

There has been a little confusion on how to design for mugs.  Part of this stems from the site changing how images are applied to a certain extent.


Currently, the site uses one image for mugs (tall and standard) and a different image for travel mugs.  Travel mugs aren't currently available on the site, but should be sometime in the near future.

The image for coffee mugs needs to be 2700 x 1624 for full coverage on tall mugs.  The same image can be used for standard sized coffee mugs, but the vertical portion of the image that will show on a standard mug is just over 1120 pixels.

For best result you'll want to limit important portions of the image to the central 1000 pixels or use a repeating pattern.


Here's a template to use when designing mugs:

It's 2700 x 1624.  Use the entire template (dark and light gray) for tall mugs.  (These aren't available yet, but it's a good idea to design with them in mind.)  The light gray area shows the area that will be printed on standard mugs.  It's roughly 1126 pixels tall. 

The green line represents the point immediately across from the handle.  If you want to center an image across from the handle, use this line.

The red lines are where you want to place images to center them on the sides.  Yes, the red lines are closer to the edges than to the middle.  The area missing on the edges is where the handle is located.


Travel Mugs

Image dimensions for travel mugs (when implemented): 2376 x 2024.  Travel mugs don't have a handle, so you don't need to make allowance for the handle.

For travel mugs:

For a single element (like a logo) center it on the green line.  For two elements, center on the red.  You can use the entire vertical area without worrying about losing part of the design.