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Stickers are one of the many tools you canuse to increase brand awareness. They’re cost-effective and get your name outthere – wherever you want.
To make the perfect sticker for your brand,you need to think about what it’s for, and where it’s going to be used. Thenyou can figure out the appropriate measurements, words, and colours to use.
From product labels to vouchers andadvertisements, there are endless creative marketing uses for stickers. Get aclear picture of what you want to do with your stickers, and do your best tomeasure the results.
If you’re on a shoestring budget, you can utilisethe free tools available in this guide to develop a quick sticker design. Ifyou have the budget though, hiring a professional designer is highlyrecommended. In either case, you’ll need a professional sticker companyto print your stickers.
Clear concept
Before you get any designers involved,brainstorm ideas for what exactly you want. Draw a rough outline and get a goodfeel for what it is. That way, you make life easier for your designer, whilegetting the design you imagined. The design software mentioned later can beuseful for building an initial outline, but a basic pencil and paper will dothe trick too.
Shape and size
You can get your sticker cut into any shapeand almost any size. Both shape and size depend on why and where you will beusing your sticker. The label will need to be cut to the measurement of thearea it will be used. If it’s just for sticking around anywhere, you won’t haveto be as specific, but it’s worth having a clear plan before going ahead.
Attractive, vibrant colours
If you want a sticker that stands out, itneeds bold, visual appeal. The best way to make your sticker attention-grabbingis with vivid, vibrant colours that catch eyes from any distance. If yourcurrent palette is muted and unappealing, dial up the colour intensity for yoursticker design.
If you don’t know the first thing aboutcolours, the internet can help. Here are some tools that will help you come upwith a popping colour palette:
- Coolors– simple, auto-generated colour palettes
- Canva – usesyour image to create a custom colour palette
- Paletton– develop and fine-tune your own custom colour palette
Clean and simple design
When it comes to branded stickers, less ismore. Complex, elaborate designs may show off your artistry, but they say littleabout what you do and who you are. You want to spread brand awareness, so keepthe design simple and clear so it doesn’t defeat the purpose of your sticker.
Use clear copy
Unless you’re printing a sticker to fill anentire wall, you’re likely going to be working with limited space. Even if youaren’t, people don’t have all day to read a wall of text – so keep it short andsweet.
Deliver an impactful message with the leastwords. If it’s just your brand name, or there’s no text at all, make sure thesticker design has some indication of what your business does. Icons can besurprisingly effective. For example, look at this G:
Unlessyou live in a cave, you know what that G stands for. It’s the combination ofcolours on the G that immediately tell you this G stands for Google. No wordsneeded. This is as much about effective branding as it is sticker design.
Crisp, readable lettering
How the copy’s presented is just asimportant as the copy itself. Use a font that is easy to read. Fancy butunreadable letters go against the purpose of your brand sticker.
Bold typeface is popular on stickers. Thishelps people read your sticker from a distance. Using your design software, youshould be able to adjust the weight (boldness) of your letters.
How are your words going to be presented?Will they go around a circle? Be presented vertically, horizontally ordiagonally? The clearest text will always be presented on a horizontal line.But that might not always work for the shape of your sticker, so it’s importantto test and find a balance between style and functionality. The spacing betweenletters and lines should also be tweaked until you find a style that’s ‘justright’.
Test different fonts and font weight forreadability at a distance to find the most effective typography.
Include a Call to Action (CTA)
What better way to get people to rememberthan something they can take action on? A CTA is a line of text that promptsthe viewer to take some kind of action. A common example of this is “freesample” or “buy now”. On a sticker, you could combine a CTA with something likea QR code or NFC. For example, you could offer a free sample, quote,consultation, or product.
QR codes
Using a QR code, you can take peopledirectly to the page offering one of those things when they scan it with theirphone. These are easy to setup and a basic one is free to generate. Use awebsite that generates QR codes forfree.
NFC
NFC is a newer technology, primarily usedfor making contactless payments with your mobile phone. But savvy marketersquickly realised the marketing potential of this technology and started usingthem in advertisements.
Unlike QR codes which have to be read bythe devices’ camera, an NFC tag is read simply by putting the phone near theadvertisement. Effortless for the user, but more technical to set up for you,they require an NFC chip in the sticker to work. These are easily found onlinethough and are quite cheap.
Use professional software
To make a lasting impression, you need aprofessional design. There’s a lot of software out there for designing stickers,but there are some which are seen as the industry standard.
Design software features a learning curve,and in some cases is quite expensive. If you don’t have the time or budget,there are some free tools like Canva and Adobe Spark, which offereasy-to-use templates.
Professional sticker design software:
Make it high-definition
Low quality images leave a bad impressionin the eyes of the viewer. Really. Bad. A professional company should have aprofessional sticker that looks sharp and easy to read.
Most sticker printing companies recommend 300DPI or higher, so ensure the image is set to the quality your sticker designcompany recommends.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to consider in design andmarketing. But creating the perfect sticker for your brand should be a biteasier now. From concept to design and execution, you’ll learn a lot along thejourney. It’s not always clear, but when it all comes together at the end,you’ll be happy with the results.
You’ll most likely be getting your labelsprinted by a sticker printing company. There are three things you might want toask them about before going ahead:
- What file format works best forthem
- What DPI to save the image
- What bleed/trim to use
When you’ve got all the details ironed out,it’s time to get your stickers printed!
