Sticker art has been part of our everyday culture without us often noticing it. Sticker art helps promote our works, communicate our messages, develop design and brand identity, advocate political causes, and build communities of people around this format. I have been interested in small stickers that appear on the streets of cities around the globe for many years. It is my chance now to appreciate these tiny artworks, because New York is one of the capitals of street art, graffiti, and these stickers.

One question that inspired my research was that I want to know who the stickers’ primary targeted audiences are, since most of the locations of the stickers on the streets are not noticeable for many pedestrians, who are hurrying on the street and focusing their attention on something else. Perhaps the stickers are targeting people just like me who notice and observe this tiny art form, and become a member of a sticker community. Most importantly, I am interested in how sticker artists use their work to challenge the authorities, because this kind of art technically remains “vandalism” and is “illegal” in many cities around the world. During my initial research trips, I found that many places, especially the tourist areas such as the 9/11 Memorial, City Hall, Bryant Park, New York Public Library, and Times Square, are really clean, without stickers or graffiti. Nevertheless, corporations and organizations use this kind of “vandalism” and “street art” to promote their own campaigns. For example, shops and a beer garden next to the 9/11 memorial use large graffiti-style signs to welcome tourists and tiny stickers with barcodes to promote officially city-selected artworks in Times Square.

I am also interested in the dilemma that sticker designers face when they choose the design, color, size, and location of their stickers. One the one hand, they want the stickers to be noticeable enough to communicate a message, but they don’t want the stickers to be too noticeable or they will be removed by cleaners or the authorities.