With you and your fellow graduates wearing the same cap and gown, the perfect way to stand out in the crowd is by decorating your tassel topper! Designing your own graduation cap is an opportunity to showcase your individuality and creativity for all your friends and family to see from the stands or even virtually!
The History of the Graduation Cap
It’s been said that a cap with a matching gown represents recognition and achievement in academia. The cap has been a part of graduations for centuries in countries all around the world. Graduation cap decoration started in the 60s when people drew peace signs to protest the war. Nowadays, designing a cap has turned more into a DIY project to showcase all the hard work students have accomplished in their years at school!
Graduation Cap Ideas
1. Your School Colors
Represent your school with incorporating the school colors in your topper. Add these colors to any text or background elements in your design.
Pro Tip: If you’re looking for pre-existing grad cap templates featuring your school, look for your school within our collection of officially licensed universities.
2. Your Degree or Major
If you’re creating a cap for higher education, a traditional way to decorate your cap is by including the degree or major you’re pursuing. This can be a main element or you can place it in a small section within your design.
3. Your Organizations
Whether you were a part of greek life or a popular organization on your campus, a lot of traditional graduation cap designs often showcase campus involvement.
Pro Tip: If you’ve joined a sorority or fraternity, find your letters within our collection of sorority, fraternity and co-ed stores.
4. Your Next Plans
Let everyone in the stands know where you’re headed post-grad! Create a fun design to showcase your new job or new location! If you’re going with the flow of life with no set in stone post-grad plans, that’s more than okay! You can make a fun design such as “To be determined…” or “We’ll see what’s next!”.
5. A Photo Collage
Display all your favorite photos of your friends and memories in a photo collage on your graduation cap. Add 1 or 2 or 12 photos in one of our existing photo cap templates to make it quick and easy for you.
6. An Inside Joke
Gather your friends and design all your grad caps with a favorite inside joke. This is a great way to spend time with the people who contributed to your school experience. Create one last memory before the next chapter of your life.
7. A Clever Pun
A popular design for graduation caps is adding a pun to the top! If you’re clever enough to create your own pun related to your school or degree or major, we applaud you! If you need some funny graduation cap ideas, check out our selection of funny grad cap toppers!
8. Thank Someone
Give a shout out to whoever helped you along the way! Whether that’s Mom or Dad or Grandma or your friends and important people in your life, a big THANKS on your cap will let them know how much you appreciate them.
9. Manifest Your Goals
Predict your future on your grad cap! If there’s something you would really like to accomplish in the upcoming years, add them to your design! Maybe you have travel goals or career goals, manifest them in the form of art and put them on top of your cap for the world to see. Or at least the people who will hold you accountable!
10. Inspirational Quotes
Spread all your wisdom to future students and generations with an inspirational quote! If you have a favorite quote in mind, use Zazzle’s design tool to put it on a personalized topper. If you’re in need for some extra inspiration, browse through our selection of inspirational quote caps!
Ways to Decorate the Graduation Cap
Do It Yourself!
Make this the one last project you need to do before graduation! Gather your paints and papers and tools to create the ultimate graduation cap.
Pro Tip: Sketch out your design idea on a separate piece of people before working on your topper. It’ll be easier to accurately draw to scale with room to make mistakes!
Online Design Resources
If you’re not interested in creating your graduation cap from scratch, you can shop through a selection of existing graduation cap topper designs. Find designs for all grade levels and degrees and photo templates. Use Zazzle’s design tool to upload your own photos, text and school colors to create a custom graduation topper.
Recruit a Friend or Professional
With the stress of final exams, there might not be time to do it yourself or jump online to create a custom topper. If you have a crafty friend who wants an extra project to work on, ask them if they can help design your cap. If you would like to outsource your wants and needs for this topper, there are online design services available such as UpWork or Fiverr!
Graduation Tassel Topper FAQ
Our tassel toppers come in 1 size to fit all standard graduation caps: 8.5″ x 8.5″. Each custom topper comes with 4 adhesives to help secure the tassel topper in place. This will ensure that the graduation cap won’t get damaged as the adhesives and removable and re-attachable. The tassel toppers are made out of durable plastic with professionally printed long-lasting, vibrant ink.
It’s never been easier to create a custom graduation cap! Using Zazzle’s design tool, you are able to upload your own design, personal photos and special text to create a completely unique topper. First, click on a custom tassel topper template. Next, click on Add Image or Add Text on the right side of the product page. Upload your elements. Save & Add to Cart! It’s that simple!
More Graduation Articles
Congratulations on such an amazing accomplishment! We hope you can use your personalized graduation cap topper as a special memory of this big day. Please share any design tips or graduation cap ideas in the comments below!
Nicole is our Content Strategist. She enjoys long walks to Taco Bell, rollerblading into the sunset, and eating Reese’s Cups for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Find her writing about iPhone cases, holiday card messaging and even music festival tips!
