Brother in Sticker Art: Spot the Badger (STB)
Stickers in the street from: 2015
City: Bristol
State: England (U.K.)
1 - Introduce your sticker art project
The shape I use is an outline of a Badger, an animal that gets a bit of a bad rep in the U.K..
A bit lost on creative direction, I knew I had some skills but never really had a focus and a bit sporadic in my output, so my wife suggested one day why not do Badgers… we were about to go travelling so I packed a notebook and started drawing using the outline of a Badger from a competition that featured in my local paper. I have always been a big fan of Obey (Shepard Fairey), The Toasters, London Police and Space Invader, character based street art and the repetition of shape/message, coming up with new ways to use the same elements in different formats.
My Badger shape is a starting point for my work, my blank piece of paper, a constraint for me to work within. From what I can tell very few people use a Badger as a focus for their work, so it's had good cut through… The Badger is also an animal that is being culled in the UK, our current government is behind the cull which is scientifically proven to be ineffective, costing taxpayers millions, so I have been lending my Badger to anti-cull protestors, in this crazy world we are living in you have to make a stance against stupidity and that's what my Badgers are doing in a small part.
From money I make selling art, I invest in stickers as a ‘treat’ so print expensive short runs via @stickerapp, I am a sucker for a shiny/holographic die cut sticker, I think a love for stickers links back to my childhood (Panini football stickers or Pogs, ‘shinies’ were always the rarest gems!) and I then mostly hand these out to people I meet and post them out to instagram fans and then follow where they end up!
A lot of my designs were previously handrawn, handcut paper/card designs, scanned into a computer. Since becoming a father I now speed up my output, doing a lot of work on my Ipad Pro using Procreate mostly, it allows me to do multiple designs at one time and then a lot of refining digitally before making the physical output. I can also do work wherever I get 10mins, usually when trying to get my son to nap!
Everybody loves a sticker, kids and adults alike. It's obviously one of the easiest/quickest less risky ways to get your art (in miniature form) out on the streets. I have been upskilling myself to create my art on a larger scale outdoors and stickers have been a great way to fill the gap while I learn! There definitely will always be a place for stickers in my output. It's a quick way to put your mark on the world and I enjoy trying to find interesting places to put them, when I travel around Bristol or further afield.
I am still trying to define my style… not sure if I ever will, I like too much stuff and love to replicate styles I have seen or artists I admire, Badgers was a bit of a cheat way to take ownership of something I have ‘replicated’. Stick it on a Badger and suddenly it's mine. My work drifts away from Badgers but they will always be a part of me. They gave me focus, direction and opened many doors such as meeting Stelleconfuse which I will go onto next.
2 - In what creative ways have you collaborated with other sticker artists?
I am fairly new to this world and only collaborated with one artist so far but have enjoyed that process and would love to do more! I met Stelleconfuse at Upfest many many years ago, exchanged stickers gave a follow and have remained in contact since, I saw a design he had done featuring a fox and thought we could replicate with a Badger face, this worked well and a large print run later they are now located across the world. Through ‘following’ him I have followed many others from the sticker art community and exchanged stickers as well. It's a world I didn’t know existed but keen to be involved in as much as I can, collecting, printing, collaborating and sharing so get in touch spotthebadger if you want to make something together!
3 - Have you ever organized an event about sticker art? If not, you can write something about an event you have attended
Not yet.
4 - What are your future projects in the world of sticker art?
Post COVID, I have an idea for a Badgerzilla sticker which I will make in a more standard format, so I can do a bigger print run. This is just a design I love and keen to get out there! Also very interested to see where this post takes me, so get in touch if you like what you read!
5 - What sticker artists do you admire or are important to you?
Not just sticker artists but these are people who have inspired me to stick things up on the street:
And I can’t forget Stelleconfuse for exchanging stickers, keeping in touch and giving me an opportunity to be part of this world in a bigger way than would have been possible on my own. Grazie.
Make Badgers not war!
6- Your Contacts
Sito Web: Spot the Badger
Instagram: Spot the Badger
