How to make and design your own stickers?

Hi! My name is Lily, Ellis's current intern.

For my final month of internship, I'm taking over the Studio Misprint blog. I'm currently in my final year of the Illustrated & Animated Storytelling program at St. Joost, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do after graduation. What I do know for sure is that I want to partially set up my own practice. That's why I thought it would be very valuable to experiment with things like that during my internship.

I thought it would be fun to start designing stickers. Stickers seemed perfect as something I could hand out, use as promotional items, and simply as a playful exercise in discovering which style and elements truly represent me.

For my first blog post, I'll be taking you through that process! I'll be working in Procreate (my go-to program), but if you'd like to design your own sticker pack at home, you can certainly do so in any program you like, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Affinity.

Let's get to it!

The idea for my sticker pack began with an inspirational walk through my neighborhood. I wanted to create stickers with a clear theme, and nothing felt more personal than using my own neighborhood as a starting point.

During my walk, I took photos everywhere. I captured everything I saw. It was a cold, but beautiful autumn day. The sun was shining brightly, the trees were already a bit somber, and the leaves on the ground were starting to rot. The people I encountered were also well bundled up, as was I.

From that whole collection of photos I ended up creating two mood boards:

And I based a mind map on that:

Your ideas from a mind map don't have to be final, but I always find it helpful to start a project this way. It helps me get ideas and associations related to the theme down on paper right away. Then I can immediately start visualizing things for my final design.

After creating my mind map, I started sketching. These sketches were mainly inspired by my walk. From all the small drawings, I ultimately chose four that I want to develop further. It's always good to make several sketches so you can express all your ideas. Then you can choose from the best designs.

These are the rough sketches. You can see here that they don't have to be perfect yet! So don't stress about clean lines or details. It's really about getting ideas down on paper. Only then do I start to fine-tune the lines. For me, that's the foundation of every illustration, but I know Ellis always starts with shapes! Here are the results:

Next, I choose the colors for my illustration. I created my own color palette, with shades I like to use. For a sticker set, it's nice if all the colors match each other. That way, the stickers really connect. So, try to limit your color palette a bit and use the same colors repeatedly. Here are the colors I selected:

These are the final results of my sticker designs from the walk. I'm very happy with the results and would love to have them printed later!

I highly recommend starting your own sticker pack or illustration this way. Not only is it nice to get away from your screen and brave the cold, but a walk like this is also incredibly inspiring. Almost all my stickers are based on photos from my walk, and then I've refined them in my own style. It's also a great way to get moving again if you're stuck for motivation or inspiration. 😊

I enjoyed designing stickers so much that I decided to make a few more. This time, not with a single theme, but simply based on what came to mind. I searched online for inspiration.

I found a lot of great inspiration for packaging stickers. This is a step further, but probably still relevant (a fun next step!). A mood board often helps visualize what you like in a design. Just try to make it truly your own style and not copy or recreate ideas. Inspiration is good, but think about how you can truly make it your own. I did this by creating another mind map, in which I also wrote down personal sources of inspiration (like my cat). This is how I make the stickers truly my own:

For my second sticker pack, I mainly sketched things that came to mind based on the mind map. My creative process is always quite intuitive: I work intuitively and see where things go along the way. After sketching, I select a few more drawings to develop further.

Just like with the first pack, I'm starting with sharp lines for these sketches. Then I'm going to color in my lines again. These are the final designs for my stickers. I used my color palette again so all my stickers coordinate. I'm very happy with the result.

For these stickers I decided to actually have some of them printed.

The printing process of my stickers

I searched extensively for the most cost-effective and reliable printing methods for my stickers. Ultimately, I decided to have three stickers printed: the Apple Man, the Cat, and the Plant. I also wanted to have a pair of glitter stickers printed.

For the glitter stickers, I used Sticker App. The file submission process was super smooth: just a few clicks, and your order was placed. Sticker App offers a wide range of options, including glitter stickers, holographic, transparent, and 3D stickers. These are a bit pricier than regular stickers, though.

For the regular stickers, I went to Peter Print. Things weren't quite as smooth there, but that was a positive. Peter Print does a manual check: someone from the company checks whether your file is correct. In my case, there was always an error in my files, which meant they couldn't be placed right away. It was a bit of a learning curve, but in the end, everything worked out fine and the stickers were shipped.

What I learned most from this is that you always have to keep in mind that sticker delivery can be quite precise, and that printing stickers can sometimes be quite expensive. For example, I paid €63 for 25 10 x 10 cm glitter stickers. It's not extremely expensive, but for a student like me, it's still quite a bit of money! I paid €36.38 for 50 regular stickers at Peter Print, which was a much better price. There were other alternatives, but they didn't meet my personal needs.

My recommendation: for regular stickers, definitely go with Peter Print. They handle your materials with care, ensure everything goes smoothly, and ultimately, the price isn't actually any more expensive than other websites. This way, you can be sure your stickers will turn out great and there won't be any surprises during the process.

Here's a picture of my print file for peterprint:

They required a 3mm bleed area around your sticker. This can vary by website, so my tip is: always read carefully before ordering! Each website has its own delivery specifications. You'll see black lines here. These are the final cutting lines. I found that it's even better to extend the bleed in the same color as your sticker. This way, it won't be a problem if the trim isn't perfect.

And here's the final result of my stickers! I'm really happy with how they turned out. It's a great way to showcase yourself as a creator. You can stick your stickers anywhere for people to see. That's why I also added my Instagram handle, so people can recognize my work. This way, they also serve as a kind of marketing tool for my Instagram page (and it's totally worth the investment).

I hope this has motivated and inspired you to get started with stickers. It's something virtually anyone can do at home. You don't need expensive or complicated tools. A laptop or iPad is all you need. You can also choose to work analogously and scan and edit your design digitally later. There are so many possibilities, and I personally found it a truly enjoyable experience. I'm still incredibly happy with the result!