Sketch

Whether the design is for stickers, t-shirts, or figurines, I find it important to sketch out my design ideas before spending a substantial amount of time designing. I like to sketch as many ideas as possible even when I feel strongly about my first idea; my first idea often isn’t the design I end up going with.

Design

For stickers, I mostly use Adobe Illustrator since my brand style is a lot of minimal pen-tooling. I do this for t-shirts too.

I design my figurines in Blender. Sometimes I start with basic base models I created. Some models have been easier to start from scratch.

I make sure to print tests for stickers and figurines. The stickers sometimes need color adjusting. I print out my figurines in “checkpoints”: whenever I think I’m ready to subdivide to build more detail, I print out my draft to see if I missed any details. I print about 3-8 different drafts before I get a figurine I’m happy with.

Create

When creating stickers, I use Cricut Design Space to format how I want a sheet of stickers to be printed. I use a Cricut machine to cut the stickers out.

I use PrusaSlicer to format my 3D models/tweak settings before printing my figurines with a 3D printer. I usually use a quick, draft mode for rough drafts and use a more detailed setting, which makes for a longer print time, when I am ready for final prints.

Refine

I make sure to do a quality-check on stickers. If any are ripped, not cut well, scratched, etc. I don’t feel comfortable selling them.

3D prints often have little extra pieces here and there. I refine 3D prints by either using sandpaper or a sharp pair of small scissors to smooth the surface and get rid of any extra bits.

Finish

I finish off my figurines with hand-painted details, more refinement, and some coats of spray sealant.