Journey to Landing my Stickers on WeChat Creators Market
My design and application process of creating sticker set from the beginning to the end.
It all started from a flash of thought, “Why not try something new?”
Being as a heavy user on WeChat, I am sending and receiving stickers every single day. And I started to think, what if I could create my own stickers on WeChat?
To be honest, I am not good at drawing. I began to draw earlier this year, along with the launch of the new iPad with Apple Pencil supported. But I do see myself as a creator, who is passionate about bringing ideas into reality, helping people live better, happier. So I decided to give it a shot.
Design Process
1. Create the Character
Before I designed the character, I did some research on what’s trending in China. A buzzword caught my attention: Buddha-like Youngsters (佛系青年). This went viral among post-90s generation, with the concept of being average and going with the flow. With the influence of One Child Policy, our generation were given high expectations. We set high standards for ourselves. But sometimes, we have to accept the fact that we are just ordinary. This concept came in and spoke up our attitude towards life and career. So I decided to create something around it.
I named her Hulasha. This name randomly came to mind, with no underlying meaning. But there is a strong feeling from thebottom of my heart, that she is Hulasha.
菩提树下，紫影婆娑。若花女子，悠悠念佛。柳眉凤眼，娉婷袅娜。头顶生草，蜂蝶萦绕。不知其所从来，但闻芳名何许。此女名曰Hulasha。佛系女子，亦有喜怒哀乐。
The Chinese above is my description of the character: There is a girl in purple chanting under a Pipal Tree. She is elegant and sophisticated with classical asian eyes and a pair of arched eyebrow. No one knows where she came from, but we know she is called Hulasha. She is a female buddhist, yet she has all the emotions like everyone else.
2. Brainstorm Key Messages
As a sticker collection shall contain at least 16 stickers with different facial expressions and gestures, Step 2 is to gather all the key messages of each sticker. There are three thumb of rules around that:
‧ Easy to use in daily conversations
‧ Interesting or trendy key messages
‧ Suitable for your character
As my character is defined as a Buddhist, all the messages from her can be a bit poetic. At the same time, I wanna show that she also has emotions like everyone else. So there can be messages like laughters, angers, sorrows and happiness. So we can add a little fun to it.
3. Draw the Character Set
After building up the ket messages in the sticker set, I started to draw the sticker one by one.
During the process of drawing the character with different gestures, it is quite hard for me to maintain the same style of the person. When the gesture changes, the distance among all the body parts changes at the same time. This requires more learning and practice.
Also, Hulasha has a bud growing on her head. The bud changes to other forms along with the mood of the character. For example, if Hulasha is happy, the bud will transform to be a flower; if Hulasha is sad, the bud will have drooping leaves.
If you are curious on which app I am using to draw on iPad, it is called “Linea Sketch”. I am not promoting this app here. Also, I found out that the app has some serious bugs and limitations: First, sometimes after you erase something from one layer, that stuff comes out again when you reopen the sketch file. This occurs quite often to me; Second, you can only have 5 layers. This is a huge limitation to me as often times, I need to have more layers; Third, there are only few options of ink pens and brushes, also for the thickness.
Next time, I might go for Procreate for sticker drawing.
Application Process
1. Sign Up
To start with, I need to sign up on WeChat Creators Market. I can either sign up as a personal account or a corporate account. Here I choose the former.
As for personal account, I am asked to fill in my email address and phone number, upload my Mainland ID Card Copy, and have my WeChat account bound with my bank account.
Up to this time, it only allows people from mainland China to sign up. If you are not from mainland China, you can try to upload your stickers in other places, such as LINE Creators Market.
2. Set Up a Profile
Next, I need to create my profile. It requires me to upload a profile photo, a banner, and a short description of myself.
Having your contact information in the description is quite necessary, as if someone likes your work and want to have you work on certain projects, they can contact you through email.
3. Upload Stickers
After I finished the design part, it is time for me to submit my stickers. There are certain rules on formats and sizes. And there are some extra design work, other than the sticker set, such as banners, sticker icon, sticker profile…
Besides that, I need to write some descriptions about this character; choose a character style in the dropdown list; decide whether to accept tipping or not. After filling in all these fields, it is good to go.
4. Get Rejected
It is normal to receive rejection. It roughly takes 3–5 working days to get the result once your submit. During this period of time, I feel a little frustrated, as every time it rejected me with different reasons;
As for the first-time rejection, it says that the cover photo and the chatroom icon are not allowed to have white border. Usually we add white border on stickers, in order to have some contrasts against the background. But not for the cover photo and the icon though. Besides, the topic that I have chosen for this sticker set is not relevant. So I have to choose other topics. Overall, the first-time rejection is easy fix.
As for the second-time rejection, it says this particular sticker has strong religious elements, which needs to be adjusted. This also reminds us that before we start to draw, we should check out the guidelines, making sure that any of our design concept is not violating any rules.
I started to wonder, could they point out all the unacceptable items in one time, then I can update in one go. It saves time on both sides. Anyway, I might be a bit demanding on this. We should be more patient and empathetic.
5. Land on
Finally, Hulasha made her debut on WeChat Sticker Market. I feel so happy and grateful, which is not just attributed to the success; it is about the days and nights of brainstorming, drawing, submitting and fine-tuning. Finally, I can download and use the stickers which are created by myself.
Last Remarks
I started this project on Apr. 29th 2018. It takes nearly 3 months to go through every step and finally make it happen. More than half of the people in my class dropped out in the middle, as this project takes after-class time and efforts. People can’t just create everything during the class hour.
Beautiful work is not an accident.
Through out this journey, I also thought about giving up. But if I just stopped, Hulasha would never be able to make a debut in public. It needs patience and perseverance to deliver good art pieces. Beautiful work is not an accident. This is a good start for me and I wish to bring more interesting ideas to life.
On WeChat, the sticker creator is called artist (艺术家).
Hence, I am an artist.
