Mozillians like stickers.

However! Mozilla doesn’t print as many stickers as you might think it does. Firefox iconography, moz://a wordmarks, All Hands-specific rounds, and Mozilla office designs are the limit of official stickers I’ve seen come from official sources.

The vast majority of sticker designs are unofficial, made by humans like you! This guide contains tips that should help you create and share your own unofficial stickers.

Design

I’m not a designer. Luckily for my most recent printing project I was simply updating the existing design you see above. If you are adapting someone else’s design, ensure you either have permission or are staying within the terms of the design’s license. Basic Firefox product identity assets are released under generous terms for remixing, for instance.

Size

The bigger they are, the harder they are to fit in a pocket or on the back of a laptop screen. Or in carry-on. The most successful stickers I’ve encountered have been at most 7cm on the longest side (or in diameter, for rounds), and many have been much smaller. With regards to size, less may in fact be more, but you have to balance this with any included text which must be legible. The design I used wouldn’t work much smaller than 7cm in height, and the text is already a little hard to read.

Distribution

How will you distribute these? If your design is team-specific, a work week is a good chance to hand them out individually. If the design is for a location, then pick a good gathering point in that location (lunchrooms are a traditional and effective choice), fan out some dozen or two stickers, and distribution should take care of itself. All Hands are another excellent opportunity for individual and bulk distribution. If the timing doesn’t work out well to align with a work week or an All Hands, you may have to resort to mailing them over the globe yourself. In this case, foster contacts in Mozilla spaces around the world to help your stickers make it the last mile into the hands and onto the laptops of your appreciative audience.

Volume

50 is a bare minimum both in what you’ll be permitted to purchase by the printer and in how many you’ll want to have on hand to give away. If your design is timeless (i.e. doesn’t have a year on it, doesn’t refer to a current event), consider making enough leftovers for the future. If your design is generic enough that there will be interest outside of your team, consider increasing supply for this demand. Generally the second 50 stickers cost a pittance compared to the first 50, so don’t be afraid to go for a few extra.

Funding

You’ll be paying for this yourself. If your design is team-specific and you have an amenable expense approver you might be able to gain reimbursement under team-building expenses… But don’t depend on this. Don’t spend any money you can’t afford. You’re looking at between 50 to 100 USD for just about any number of any kind of sticker, at current prices.

Location

I’m in Canada. The sticker printer I chose most recently (stickermule) was in the US. Unsurprisingly, it was cheaper and faster to deliver the stickers to the US. Luckily, :kparlante was willing to mule the result to me at the San Francisco All Hands, so I was able to save both time and money. Consider these logistical challenges when planning your swag.

Timing

Two weeks before an All Hands is probably too late to start the process of generating stickers. I’ve made it happen, but I was lucky. Be more prepared than I was and start at least a month ahead. (As of publication time you ought to have time to take care of it all before Austin).

Printing

After putting a little thought into the above areas it’s simply a matter of choosing a printing company (local to your region, or near your distribution venue) and sending in the design. They will likely generate a proof which will show you what their interpretation of your design on their printing hardware will look like. You then approve the proof to start printing, or make changes to the design and have the printer regenerate a proof until you are satisfied. Then you arrange for delivery and payment. Expect this part of the process to take at least a week.

And that’s all I have for now. I’ll compile any feedback I receive into an edit or a Part 2, as I’ve no doubt forgotten something essential that some member of the Mozilla Sticker Royalty will only too happily point out to me soonish.

Oh, and consider following or occasionally perusing the mozsticker Instagram account to see a sample of the variety in the Mozilla sticker ecosystem.

Happy Stickering!

:chutten