Animas Outdoors Blog — stickers

What is Sticker Art? 0

As I’m road tripping around with my wife, friends and pup to climbing and hiking locations I look for moments that could inspire sticker designs.

Once back home in Durango I collaborate with a group of talented illustrators here in Colorado to bring those concepts to life as Sticker Art. 

The Sticker Art above was inspired by backpacking in the San Juan Mountains pictured below.

Most of the time my phone stays in my pocket on the trail or on the road (on airplane mode to avoid over connectedness & save battery life). As inspiration comes I take a few photo's of the moment and then move over to the note pad app and jot down my feelings at the time.

There's a story printed on the back of every sticker describing those feelings for the moment that's illustrated on the front. And that's where I credit the illustrator who helped design the sticker so they can garner new clients from their work. 

Each sticker is meant to share those feelings we get when exploring. To bring back the memories of that awesome route you climbed or epic backpacking adventure with a specific friend. Hopefully it also inspires people to get outside more often and keep them stoked through the work week for upcoming adventures whether in their backyard or abroad. 

Snowboarding in single digit temp.'s with a frozen beard at Wolf Creek, C.O. which inspired the snowboarding sticker below. 

I'm incredibly grateful for my parents encouragement at a young age in entrepreneurial endeavors. Before I had a driver's permit I was selling boiled peanuts on the street corners of Charleston, S.C., went on to buying and selling used cars out of our front yard and had a route of candy and soda vending machines. 

My dad and I spray painted an entire El Camino jet black once and made around $200 flipping it - it was an awesome time that taught me a lot about business.

Climbing Wham Ridge on Vestal peak (13,864 ft) above inspired the Alpine Rock Climbing sticker below.

When I got the idea for Sticker Art on a climbing trip I immediately knew of one big hurdle - I have no idea how to draw anything. Those previous entrepreneurial experiences though taught me to sell an idea well and to not be afraid of failing.

So I jumped in and contacted a few talented artists I found online and pitched them the concept via email. Luckily a few illustrators were down to help and after 6 months of toiling away on this concept after work from 5 - 9pm with them, I quite my job and went all in on stickers!

Bryant balancing running a small business and playing outside with his dog Maybel.

The artists I work with each receive a small royalty as I sell the stickers they illustrated so we all benefit as the business grows. Sticker Art really wouldn't be possible without their talented minds to help create the illustrations that make Sticker Art what it is. 

Now I balance running this small business and get to spend way more time with my wife Emily, my friends and pup Maybel adventuring outdoors where I get even more sticker ideas. 

I love what I do and I'm incredibly grateful for all the supporters, like the small businesses who sell our stickers and those people who connect with the illustrations enough to buy a sticker. 

Our illustrations are getting better as the artists and I get the feeling of how to make the most beautiful Sticker Art. I am stoked at what is to come, like the new overhung limestone sport climbing inspired sticker I'm finally getting around to creating! 

www.StickerArt.com - Scope out the latest designs

Tim's Lane 0

There's an importance about residing within a rad community, it brings about inspiration and stoke for daily life. Oliver Sutro (production) & Jeff Dobronyi (skier / interviewee) are two rad dudes living in Ouray Colorado. They generously allowed myself and partner Emily to crash on their floor, we also ate a bunch of their yummy food. 

I just received the below link to a film they made about a specific ski run there, which at the time of sleeping on their floor I didn't even know they were even working on. It's a fun quirky inside look at a specific slice of heaven here in the SouthWest. It certainly inspires me to go experience new places and find out the little secrets hidden within their history. Enjoy. 

Seek failure, suffering and jump when you're ready. 0

I've been failing all my life, starting around 3rd grade when I was held back in school. Prior to founding Sticker Art I worked the same job for 8 years and in my 5 - 9pm attempted to start and build multiple businesses, all failing and some in more spectacular fashion than others.

The TV you see is a digital signage company I helped start, next is a CAD design of a travel mug and third a long-range drone. I spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars of my savings attempting these businesses and many others.

They were creative and all could have worked with proper execution but didn't for a plethora of reasons. The drone I simply crashed into a class 5 whitewater rapid while filming some climbing, the digital signage company had too many people involved early on and the CAD design was too expensive to create a prototype of and we had no capital.

When I thought of the idea for these stickers while on a climbing trip in California I nearly immediately knew the idea had credibility because I had previously failed so many times. And it was a business centered around enjoying the outdoors which I love.

So again, I jumped in and started a new business. Fast forward 9 months to August I quit my job of 8 years and now I'm doing this sticker thing full time attempting to make ends meet and adventure as much as possible.

I still fail daily.

Recently I posted to a subreddit called "ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney" and was quite surprised at the feedback. Some asked if the characters in the sticker illustrations were going to do erotic things, others simply stating my product was shit. I still however made a number of sales from this post which was pretty cool. I learned that I should explain the product a bit more and I shouldn't expect much from a community that is mostly into gaming. Know your demographic! I'll try to re-post something more genuine in there next month to see how it goes, I'll probably fail again. 

                        "I wouldn't wipe my ass with this product"

This business certainly isn't going to break the bank but I connect with it which is why I think it's working and you guys can feel that connection. The more we adventure the more ideas for rad stickers we get.

It's a beautiful thing that I'm so excited to work on and share with you all. So, take a jump and fail a bunch. It's fun and you'll have some great stories to share. Thankfully the jump below didn't fail but I was indeed very ready for it. [warning explicit language!].

- Bryant