Where I license sticker designs

I don't draw the stickers in this shop. The artwork is licensed, and I print, cut, pack, and ship every sticker myself. That's why the shop says "printed and shipped by hand" and never "designed by hand."

If you want to sell stickers but you're not an illustrator, licensing is the honest way to do it. Here's where my designs come from and what to check before you print anything.

Creative Fabrica

The designs come from Creative Fabrica, a marketplace of graphics, fonts, and craft files made by independent designers. You can buy items one at a time or pay for a subscription that covers everything you download while it's active. Every download comes with a license, and the license is what actually decides what you're allowed to sell.

What the subscription license allows

This is my plain-English reading of the current subscription license, as it applies to stickers:

• You can print a design on physical products and sell them, with or without changes.
• There's no cap on how many you sell, and you can sell them anywhere in the world.
• If you cancel, you can keep selling products you made while you were subscribed. You can't start new designs from your downloads after that (craft files are the exception).

And what it doesn't:

• You can never sell, share, or give away the digital files themselves, and you can't include a copy of the file with a sticker you sell.
• You can't resell the designs as files or templates for other people to print.

Single purchases come with their own license, so read the one attached to each item you buy. Licenses also change over time. Check the current version on Creative Fabrica before you rely on any of this. I'm a sticker seller, not a lawyer.

What to check before you print a design

• Keep your proof. Save the order or download history for every design you sell, so you can show where it came from and when you licensed it.
• Watch for trademarks. A license covers the artwork, not someone else's brand. Skip designs built around famous characters, logos, sports teams, or band names. A marketplace license can't give you rights the designer never had.
• Make it your own where you can. Many sellers license the same popular designs. Picking a clear theme, adjusting colors, and choosing sizes that suit how people use stickers is what makes a shop feel like yours.
• Don't claim you drew it. Customers don't mind licensed art, but they do mind being misled. Describe your work as what it is: printing, cutting, curating, and shipping.

What this looks like in my shop

Everything in the shop is licensed artwork, printed on waterproof vinyl and cut to shape. When the same design comes in several colors, I group those into one product with a style picker instead of listing near-copies. The next article covers the machine that prints and cuts them.