Skip to main content

Design Work Creative

Recreating Stickers at the Sign Shop

How I recreated oversized stickers using photography and Adobe Illustrator at my part-time sign writing job in New Zealand.

Most students in New Zealand work after school so they can enjoy their time with friends. My part-time job included working at a Parts Department and Sign Writing shop. Below is an example of the work I did while I was there.

Imagine trying to recreate stickers that are too large to be scanned with a regular scanner, while ensuring the output is high resolution enough to print in a large format.

This customer wanted a sticker recreated as soon as possible—otherwise, it would take four weeks for replacements to arrive from Holland.

The Original Sticker
#

Original worn sticker

As you can see, the sticker wasn’t in perfect condition.

The Process
#

Stitched photo of the sticker

The trick was to take close-up photos with the camera available at the sign shop, then stitch the images together to get the highest quality image possible.

I used Photoshop’s photo merge feature to ensure the detail in the blue-to-white gradient was clear enough to accurately recreate.

The Final Result
#

Digitally recreated sticker

Final printed sticker applied

The customer was happy to have their sticker reproduced quickly without waiting for an international shipment.