Bored Panda wanted to learn more about the key things to keep in mind when designing stickers for clarity, as well as what can help the designs stand out from the crowd. A member of the UK-based StickerShop.co.uk team, Callum, was kind enough to shed some light on this.

"When you are designing a sticker with the intention of it to stand out above all other stickers we would always recommend using bold, bright contrasting colors!" he told us.

"We print artwork on a huge range of fluorescent and metallic self-adhesive vinyls. When the customer's artwork has colors that contrast these materials they really pop and draw attention," the representative said via email.

"Fonts and font size is a huge factor to consider when creating your artwork. Depending if your sticker is intended to be read from a distance, or from up close you want your audience to be able to read what is on your sticker with ease."

Meanwhile, we were curious about how the materials and adhesives differ when creating bumper stickers, compared to more 'regular' ones that you might stick on surfaces at home.

"When creating a bumper sticker, we always opt for a waterproof vinyl material with a permanent adhesive to ensure the bumper sticker stays stuck to the car and doesn't come off easily," the StickerShop.co.uk representative told Bored Panda.

"We have a range of other materials that we can print on, some of which wouldn't be suitable for bumpers as they are made from paper materials which eventually disintegrate as they get damaged by water."

Car bumper stickers—like any other signs—have just a split second to make an impact on the person looking at them. So technical things like the format, the kerning (that’s the spacing between letters), the color, and the background all matter. As does the length of the text and any images you use!

And that’s on top of the actual joke—ideally, you want to cram something so witty in there that’s going to get others chuckling even when their mood is very low (and it’ll get more people admiring your sticker, too). So sticker designers have a ton of things to think about.

Not only that, designers have to keep in mind that bumper stickers aren’t just digital designs: you have to think about the practical side of things. Including what adhesive you use, what material the actual sticker is going to be made of, and how all of these are going to be affected by changes in temperature, excessive sunlight, rain, and snow.

To oversimplify things, you want to make a sticker that, well, sticks without damaging the underlying material and keeps its message legible as time passes. Of course, no sticker is going to be immune to entropy! But it makes a huge difference whether you have to change one witty bumper sticker for another after just a few weeks or a few years. 

The joke and/or message itself should be very brief and clear. Both of these things lie at the core of comedy, impactful signs, and even witty internet posts. To put it simply, with so much information and entertainment surrounding us in the world (from real-life ads to the veritable bombardment of news and memes and video clips on social media), our attention spans have been becoming shorter and shorter.

CNN reports that the average attention span used to be around 2.5 minutes in 2004. This then fell to 75 seconds a few years later, and now, people can pay an average of barely 47 seconds on one screen. Not only that, research has shown that it takes over 25 minutes to refocus on what we were originally doing if our attention gets diverted. With this context in mind, it makes sense for content—including bumper sticker quips—to be as to the point as possible. Otherwise, people might just skip over the message, not wanting to bother reading something that’s overly long or wordy. 

It really helps to ask someone for their thoughts before rushing off to print your newest sticker design. Everyone, no matter how great of a designer they are, needs a second opinion and a fresh set of eyes. Show your design to a few friends, relatives, or colleagues. They might surprise you with their insights and even offer some thoughts on making the joke even better.

For example, they might spot a silly typo your brain just skipped over; or reveal that the font and color combo you chose is really hard on the eyes. Who knows, they might even chuckle at how the spacing of the letters creates an entirely different set of words than you intended. The word ‘click’ can take on an entirely different meaning if your kerning is off and the ‘c’ ends up combining with the ‘l.’ Keep that in mind no matter what logo or sign you’re designing!

The point is that you shouldn’t be afraid of listening to some gentle criticism about your designs. One sign of a pro is that they don’t take these things personally. Instead, they objectively consider the advice they got and apply what’s useful while discarding the rest. It also helps to realize that nobody’s perfect and nobody can be truly competent at a dozen different things.

For instance, you might genuinely need the services of a proofreader because typos are something you’re awful at finding, no matter how much you try. It’s better to seek their services instead of ending up embarrassed and worrying about your wallet, with hundreds of stickers you need to redesign and then reprint. Or you might be a wiz at cooking up witty one-liners but may need a digital designer’s services to make them stand out from the crowd. Know your limits—don’t be scared of collaboration.

We’d love to hear which of these sticker designs made you laugh the hardest, dear Pandas. Were there any that you’d love to slap onto your own car bumper? What kind of stickers do you currently have on your vehicles? Share your thoughts in the comments. Meanwhile, for some more witty and silly bumper stickers, check out Bored Panda’s previous feature right over here.