In April of 2020 I decided that I wanted to do something fun to grow my graphic design skillset and keep in touch with friends that I hadn't been able to see in months due to quarantine. I came up with the idea of designing stickers to practice my illustration skills, and mailing them out as a surprise. My designs now have over 1.7 Million views (and counting)!
Design & Manufacturing
My normal graphic design work is very typography and layout driven. With this progress I wanted to challenge myself to learn to illustrate with the pen tool. I wanted to use fun, bright colors and use a minimal design aesthetic. I drew inspiration from Sage Aune and ban.do. I manufactured the stickers myself, using a Cricut die cutting machine. With some experimentation and tweaking, I landed on my final sticker sheet design.
In Progress Sticker Designs
![Cricut Die Cut Test Batch](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/590dd973b37e5e1af8cabeae34757fcf/0c488688-fb49-4a96-95b7-855256c307ea_rw_1920.jpg?h=3a96c36cf91a51f0a40170951d3f8fe9)
Cricut Die Cut Test Batch
![Cricut Sticker Sheet Test Batch](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/590dd973b37e5e1af8cabeae34757fcf/785e2db7-4480-43b6-b664-bd6b3028b3b1_rw_1920.jpg?h=c67e375bccff91b8e071b958e944aee0)
Cricut Sticker Sheet Test Batch
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/590dd973b37e5e1af8cabeae34757fcf/547a02a4-c76b-49aa-a6c0-b191e3875549_rw_1920.png?h=042477a3022d5d1a0547f73e0d92c8b6)
Snail Mail
Designing GIFs For GIPHY
As a huge fan and user of animated instagram and snapchat story stickers, I decided to learn how to make my own, so anyone could use my sticker designs. I taught myself to use Photoshop's timeline animation tool to turn my flat stickers into animated GIFs. With practice and many iterations, I decided on 6 GIF designs from my sticker sheet that I deemed worthy for Instagram. However, in order to have my GIFs show up in app, I needed to become a verified GIPHY creator. After a lengthy application and 6 month review process, I became a GIPHY verified artist! I currently have 1.7M GIF views (and counting), and my designs are available on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and more! Search 'Sara Dada' to use my designs.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/590dd973b37e5e1af8cabeae34757fcf/ff887ff4-bbde-42bf-a644-1bd16331e287_rw_1920.gif?h=02b82017fff3c0a41f8c2da147b21d4e)