As a freelancer the usual job prospects come from word of mouth. For the rehire, a hurdle could be the hiring line producer remembering who you are. One of the best ways, other than having a good attitude, and being great at your job is how you market yourself. Good vibes go a long way but there are thousands of crew members vying for your job.

Something you see adorning pelican cases and multiple “carts” you see on set are stickers. What could be a simple logo or picture slapped against the case could go a long way. Stickers have taken the place of the almost lost standard practice of giving out business cards. Also business cards have been around since the 15th century, shoutout China and their aristocrats and royalty for setting this trend with movable type. Cards didn't pick up in popularity in Europe until Germany's printing press was invented in the mid 1400s thanks to Johannes Gutenberg. Stickers won't be invented until 1935. Out with the old and in with the (somewhat) new.

History aside, stickers open up the door of how you want to market yourself. Whether it's a stylized font with your name, info or a logo that you create yourself the options are limitless. Some, like myself, aren't the best at executing a stand out logo design, but there are several ways to get one created. Also online there are several sticker companies offering deals to keep your sticker printing cost low. Here is my process on how I started with a logo, having it made, and sending it to be printed.

Logo Creation

So I wanted to start with my favorite animal, the Octopus. Knowing that they don't have ears, let alone be able to hold headphones on their head or even know what we perceive sound is, posed a little of an obstacle for becoming “mascot” for myself. The best part is it doesn't have to make sense. My thought is that Octopus’ can camouflage themselves in a corner which is where I usually find myself on set. To help make it make sense I wanted to add sound elements using a pair of headphones and a boom pole with a shotgun microphone. So there's the start. Personally I just don't have the skills to put it all together other than the proposal of the octopus holding a boom pole with its tentacle while wearing the headphones on her head.

Making a logo for yourself

You may have the knowledge, gusto, or the now monthly cost of $19.99 Adobe now charges for Photoshop, but I certainly don't. I gave the old college try using a free version of Photoshop called photopea.com (highly recommend If you want to take the time to learn), but I wasn't successful in the look I wanted to achieve. With the lack of knowing how to put something like that together I phoned a longtime friend and graphic designer to help. If you don't have a graphic designer homie on deck I'd recommend Fivver.com. There are thousands of artists and designers on that platform that can help achieve your logo idea. They also have a pretty vast range of art styles and prices depending on the intricacies of the logo you want. Ninety percent of the time the artists give you a proof (another way of saying a sample) and the ability to make a few corrections if the logo isn't right the first time.

If you just want a text logo the website Dafont has literally thousands of free to use fonts for downloading. They also offer a custom preview of each font so you can see how your name/company's name would look prior to downloading the whole font just to realize that you hate the way a lower case “i” looks or something along those lines. The website also has a simple tutorial on how to download the fonts. Overall its Free.99 and you can't beat that and it's a simple alternative to making a full fledged logo.

Send It Out

There are several sticker companies to choose from. Sticker Giant, UPrinting, Sticker Mule, Vista Print, are a few of the companies that come up when you search “custom stickers” in Google. Sticker Mule has been what myself and Vandelay Sound Exports use quite often. The company offers custom stickers, magnets, shirts, keychains and more. All they need is the highest resolution file you can give, which if you used Fiverr or Dafont, your completed art file is what you would send. The turn around is pretty quick and just like Fiverr they will send you a proof of what the sticker would look like. They also offer deals each month that can be sent either by text or email. Offers like $29.99 for 50 cut stickers something that usually would normally cost closer to $60 which is a pretty inexpensive deal just to sign up. They also give you a size option. The stickers are high quality and If you order a certain amount or spend a certain amount of money they send their proprietary hot sauce called Mule sauce (why they offer this is still a mystery to me) and it's quite delicious. It's the sauce I keep in my audio rig kit for those days where production skimps on catering and offers bland subway sandwiches.

Give Them Out For Exposure (the good kind)

Overall the decision on when to give your stickers out to others falls to you. I usually wait until the end of a long running multi-week gig or end of day on a single day job. As for me stickers are given out mostly to crew rather than producers depending on the circumstances. Crew has more visible places to slap stickers. It's always a joy to see a coworker showing off his or her stickered kit/pelican/cart on set and having my sticker seen by whomever the coworker works with in the future. The stickers connect you with working with the person you gave it to and acts like a little billboard for wherever the gear heads to. Your stickers can start conversations on set which then helps with what the marketing bigwigs call “brand awareness”, ultimately helping increase chat about you on set and how much of a pleasure it was working with you. Have fun with it, make it funny, make it you. Create something that reflects your personality and stands out. It's your sticker marketing campaign so get out there and start advertising.

If anything instead of giving the stickers out you could use them just to label your personal items/gear. I keeps your gear from walking off with someone else. That could determine the size of the sticker to be printed.