The Challenge
This project was part of the "100 Days of Making" class at NYU IMA. The goal of the class was to create a project for 100 consecutive days. We would each pick our own theme and media that we wanted to work on, and each day we would come up with an iteration of that idea, and post it on Instagram for our classmates and the world to see.
The goal of the project was to help us learn different aspects that come with being a creator. One was focusing on endurance rather than perfection, as a way to force creativity to happen and push ourselves in our creative process. Another was to learn to work with deadlines, as each day we would have to create something. Finally, posting our work on Instagram served for us to get into the habit of exposing our work to the world, and learning to receive praise as well as criticism.
For my project, I chose to make "100 Days of Stickers". The reason why I chose a design-oriented project was because at the time I had only started to learn Adobe Illustrator, so I was still quite new to the program. I was very interested in graphic design and I knew that Illustrator was a key tool in that field, so my goal was to master the program by the end. I also love stickers, so I thought it would be very fun to make my own.
Process
Each day, I started by trying to notice things around me for inspiration. Sometimes this would be something I saw on the street, a meme, a song I was currently listening to, or the work of other designers on social media. Sometimes, fellow students or friends would suggest ideas for stickers. Once I had narrowed down on something, I would start designing a sticker that related to what had inspired me. I tried not to think too much, and just start creating.
Usually, I would spend at least an hour on each sticker design, depending on how challenging it was or how comfortable I was with the technology. When I started off, I was not very experienced with Illustrator, so for the first few days of the project, it took me a while before I got a good handle on it. As I became more comfortable, however, the designs became more complex and fun to make.
Once I had reached a point where I felt that I had a decent handle on Illustrator's basic features, I tried to challenge myself to find new ways to create stickers. I began using Photoshop: I would look up different tutorials for interesting effects that could be made on Photoshop, and try to imagine what a sticker using that effect could look like. I also tried my hand at some illustration and even basic pixel art, which I had always wanted to experiment with. To keep myself inspired during several days, sometimes I would come up with themes that spanned multiple stickers, to create a kind of series. For example, I created a series of U.S. National Parks stickers, inspired by my trips to several of those.
My Favorites
Here are some of my favorite stickers that I made!
Day 69: this was one of my attempts to do pixel art. I'm very proud of how it turned out, and the class really liked it as well!
Day 21: inspired by the song "Ventura Highway" by America. I love the vintage postcard aesthetic and I wanted to make a postcard for a fictional place from a song.
Day 38: minimalist Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper Band regalia. I just had to do one of my favorite band.
Day 84: "thinking about the immortality of the crab" is a Spanish expression which means that one is just passing the time by thinking deeply about something.
Day 74: The Delicate Arch at Arches National Park, part of my Natl. Parks series. I drew the illustration myself on Photoshop.
Day 39: "yo soy la leche", a Spanish expression which means "I'm so cool!". I had a lot of fun translating Spanish expressions literally into English.
Day 95: experimenting with a cutout effect on Illustrator, using a 1960s aesthetic.
Day 89: my last pixel art attempt. I feel really proud of how much more complex this one was, compared to many of the other stickers.
Day 99: a spaceship design with the phrase "to the stars through difficulties". One of my first stickers was also a spaceship, so I see this one as an example of how much progress I made.
What I Learned
Besides improving significantly in my Illustrator skills, the greatest lesson I learned during my 100 Days was to learn not to overthink the creative process. I focused on making a project that was finished, rather than perfect. This was extremely helpful for me because I am usually a big perfectionist, and this sometimes leads me to manage my time inefficiently or not finish what I’m working on. While doing this project, I tried to shift my focus to simply “getting it done”, as I knew I had 100 days ahead of me. As such, many of the stickers are far from perfect, but I know that if I had spent hours pouring over the details, I never could have completed it. I feel that this challenge has helped me become a more fluid and reliable creator, and I am extremely proud that I completed such a test of endurance.
Another important asset I gained was the ability to learn to exhibit my work. I have always been very introverted, so sometimes it's difficult for me to show my work proudly in front of other people. But this project allowed me to lose some of that fear. As a result, I have started running my own design Instagram account, where I post smaller design work that I make throughout the year. If you're interested, you can check it out at @blancathedesigner.
