The Straits Times, Making $2k from stickers: Singapore’s Gen Z illustrators turning their bedroom doodles into dollars

The rise of art markets like Public Garden in Singapore is nurturing a conducive environment for up-and-coming local arts talent – self-taught illustrators who have turned their doodles into businesses, with full-fledged merchandise and characters with a following of their own. The Straits Times meets three who are now regular features at markets.

@rissaartt: Taking down counterfeiters

Not many 25-year-olds spend their weekends on a crusade to take down copycats of their work.

In her spare time, artist Arissa Rashid has been reporting and removing Taobao listings producing knock-offs of her original artworks – specifically a sardine-shaped claw clip that went viral on her social media channels.

First launched in April, the product, packaged in a makeshift food tray with cling wrap, received six million views on Instagram and 2.5 million views on TikTok.

She started noticing imitations appearing on e-marketplaces Taobao and Shopee around May. After posting about the distressing news on Instagram, she was referred to an American copyright account that helps artists take down knock-offs from sites like Etsy and Amazon. Taobao recognised the US copyright too.

“I’ve been able to take down 100 Taobao listings,” says Ms Arissa, beaming. She has since got a Singapore design trademark approved by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and submitted it to Shopee’s IP portal.

How can she be sure these are copies of her $18 hair clip? For one thing, they use her video and screenshots in the product listings, which go for as low as $2. “It’s quite funny to see the reviews on Taobao – some commenters say ‘the fish came with no cute packaging’ and leave a one-star rating,” she says.

The web designer at a media company is better known by her online moniker @rissaartt, whose signature characters include a girl named Bonky and a burnt-out amphibian called Robert The Corporate Frog.

A regular at Public Garden who has participated in seven editions since she applied in 2023, the computer science alumna from the Singapore University of Technology and Design picked up animation and graphic design skills via online courses.

She has been drawing Bonky, modelled after herself, since secondary school. The smiley girl with a green sprout on her head goes through scenarios that reflect Ms Arissa’s own experiences.

Her success came through stickers – of the digital kind.

Equipped with an iPad at her alma mater Nanyang Girls’ High, she made her first Telegram sticker pack of Bonky in 2016. Free to use and easily shareable, the stickers spread on the messaging app. By 2020, she realised strangers were using them.

Bonky went through several revisions and even an animated version. Now with several Telegram sticker packs to her name, Ms Arissa’s most popular one has 80,000 saves and 7.1 million uses.

Her social media took off after she began posting behind the scenes revealing she was the creator. She first sold physical stickers ($2.50) and postcards ($2.50), before expanding into enamel pins ($10), keychains ($9) and socks ($11).

She started boothing at markets in April 2023, and now does about three a year. Any more and she might collapse from the work, she says.

Preparation for a market begins two to three months in advance. Each edition requires juggling of timelines to account for product sampling, packaging components and consolidating shipping, before getting to the packing of the actual product. Good thing she is organised.

“My packaging is so complex, sometimes I wonder why I make things harder for myself,” jokes Ms Arissa, who bought a heat seal machine and heat gun to shrink-wrap the plastic for her sardine claw clips. Packing 100 “fish” takes three hours. “As soon as one event ends, I’ll get ready for the next.”

Customers come for her claw clips ($18 to $20) and, lately, Robert The Corporate Frog plushies ($30). Inspired by her older sister entering the workforce, the corporate character started as a Telegram sticker too, before Ms Arissa created a plushie version in 2024.

Animated in humorous scenarios such as doing a rush-hour commute, slamming a laptop closed and searching for “jobs near me”, he was created to lighten the whole experience of working. “When I started working, I got a lot more ideas myself,” she says.

After the viral sardine saga, she has had to learn how to protect her artwork. The good news is that it brought in international customers too, who now make up three-quarters of her clientele. She has shipped products to customers in South-east Asia, the United States, Hong Kong and Peru.

To cater to clients who may visit Singapore but not during art market weekends, Ms Arissa consigns a selection of products at local stores Vintagewknd in Haji Lane and Open Door Store in Tai Seng.

Otherwise, you can find her at the next Public Garden on Dec 13 and 14. Each event is a bonding session with her family, who help with packing and manning the booth.

It is the human connection with followers she prizes most. “It’s a different experience from shopping in a retail shop. It’s extra meaningful meeting the artists behind the brands. You’re not just supporting the brand, but the person. There’s a deeper connection shopping at these physical markets and getting to know their story.”

@avocag0h: Boothing from Singapore to abroad

By day, she works as a marketeer for a government-backed entity. By night, she is the brains and hands behind cute avocado character brand Avocagoh.

It can be overwhelming juggling both in the lead-up to a market, says digital illustrator Sarah Goh, especially since she designs new products for each one. “I spend my 9 to 5 in the office, and 5 to 9pm preparing for an event.”

The determined 25-year-old always knew she wanted to make merchandise. A doodler from a young age, she frequented Public Garden as a teen and was inspired by the international artists there. She picked up her father’s iPad one day and the rest was history.

In 2019, she started printing and cutting stickers herself to sell on Instagram.

The page gained traction around the time of the 2019 to 2020 Australian bushfires. Wanting to do her part, Ms Goh drew Australian animals and sold them as a sticker pack, with the proceeds going to Wires, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation. People bought them to support the cause.

Avocagoh was born when she realised people took a shine to its uniqueness in a sea of animal-inspired characters. She added two characters Poo and Rat, inspired by her best friends, to round out this “trio of unlikely friends”.

Stickers (from $3) soon expanded to memo pads ($6), keychains ($7 to $9), washi tape ($6.50), hair claws ($18), laptop sleeves ($39) and pouches ($30). Creating each product was a process of trial and error finding manufacturers and testing their quality. It took 11 months to refine and make her Avo plushie ($27), which is now one of her bestsellers.

Sometimes, consumers still question the price of her items. Says Ms Goh: “We can’t afford to mass-produce. Each design, sample and package goes through our own hands, which is why we create in small batches rather than on a mass scale.”

The sampling process is expensive. A manufacturer typically gives two rounds of sampling, which is not enough, she says. Paying for each new round of sampling adds up, alongside hitting minimum order quantity, and air shipping, which is almost three times the cost of sea shipping.

Add to that the labour in designing packaging and packing the products, which her family and friends pitch in to help with. “But consumers just see the product.”

With more competition in the field post-pandemic, as well as the looming threat of AI, “it might seem simple to recreate a design using AI or purchase something similar off other platforms, but there’s much more thought that goes into it,” she adds.

Nonetheless, her following of about 21,700 on Instagram make it a point to catch her at markets. Since her debut at Makers Market at the Esplanade in end-2020, Ms Goh has clocked at least four markets a year. She is also a rare regular feature at Public Garden.

The savvy entrepreneur has also boothed at The Seoul Illustration Fair in South Korea, and Artket and Kira Kira Art Market in Jakarta, Indonesia – sometimes on invitation, although she covers her own expenses.

Business has grown steadily, she says, declining to share how much she can make at one market.

“Rather than seeing these booths as a quick cash grab, I want to use these places to reconnect with people,” she says. “It is a blessing to see that there are people out there who enjoy the characters and artwork I created. Knowing that I can turn my designs into something that can be used for their everyday life keeps me going.”

Her hope is for Singapore to take after the art scene in South Korea, where the vibrant culture has supported the many small shops selling such goods and stationery.

“With more illustrators gaining visibility, I hope to see our works reach the mainstream and be stocked in retail spaces. I would love for Singapore to move in a direction where illustration is widely recognised but still retains its novelty. It’s more accessible for people, who don’t just have to wait for a market.”

Until then, she is happy living her double life in the corporate world. “I really do enjoy boothing even though it’s very tiring, and the experience of setting up my own shop. It’s a childhood dream, being able to make and sell whatever you want.”

@dchtoons: Making a killing off stickers

It took several detours to get to where he is today, but Mr Dylan Chia, 21, has come out on top. The TikToker behind sticker and craft business @dchtoons has made more than five figures in a year from stickers.

Can it be that lucrative selling stickers? Surprisingly, yes, says Mr Chia, who has been running DCHTOONS since he was 18. He believes what bolsters sales is his system of selling one sticker for $1.50, and $1 for quantities of five and above.

Big on transparency, the illustrator regularly shares booth rental prices and his revenue from markets online.

A booth at smaller markets typically costs $100 a day on average, where he can make the equivalent of $30 an hour in profit. As for bigger events, Public Garden costs $500 for the weekend, while Craft Fest is $480 and Hobbies Fair $350 for the “cheapest zone”. He made more than $2,000 at the latter two events.

“I’m very transparent about my sales because it’s what I wanted to see as a new illustrator too – it’s my way of giving back,” he says.

A former national taekwondo athlete, he spent a year in Republic Polytechnic studying sport science before deciding it was not for him. He had been drawing comics and dabbling with freelance graphic design on the side, and applied to Lasalle College of the Arts with his freelance portfolio and comics.

Six months into his diploma in Design for Communication and Experiences, he took a gap year to prepare to represent Singapore in the 2023 SEA Games for taekwondo. He resumed his studies in January 2024 and is now interning as a graphic designer.

His interest in art was nurtured by a mathematics teacher in primary school, who would probe him if his maths worksheets were submitted without their usual doodles. It encouraged him to start drawing four-panel comics and experimenting with digital art.

He posted the comics on Instagram for a year before creating stickers. Unlike his artist friends, he eschews having a signature character in his merchandise in favour of a variety, to have more freedom to ideate.

Cuteness alone does not sell, he adds, so he started adding punny phrases and Singaporean struggles to make the designs relatable to a local audience. Then came keychains ($8), which he designs a unique backing card for each.

His first booth was at independent market Curbside Crafters in March 2023. He started with 40 designs and has since grown the selection to almost 200.

Slow at first, business took off in mid-2024, when he challenged himself to post one TikTok video a day for a year.

A month in, one blew up and converted into sales – from five to 10 orders a month to 700 at its peak. He also gained almost 10,000 followers in under two months.

“Seeing digital views turn into real money was shocking,” recalls Mr Chia, who now rents a 136 sq ft storage unit in a warehouse as a makeshift studio. “I had to start having systems in place to pack orders, keep inventory.

“It’s very profitable, but that’s also because of the social media presence that I built. It’s challenging if you rely only on organic footfall; if you have a following, it brings in extra traffic.”

Markets have also opened doors for brand collaborations.

At one organised by statutory board People’s Association outside Orchard Road mall Ngee Ann City, he met the team from Science Centre Singapore that curates its gift shop. One earnest business proposal later, he was accepted to consign his products there. The sales report from his first month showed four figures in revenue.

Says Mr Chia: “Booths are my way of connecting with people – they’re like networking events. You’re able to reach new audiences a lot more effectively.”

He acknowledges that markets can be a big stressor for people starting out. “You’re still figuring out what works or not – and oftentimes sales are a big factor in that. But there are so many factors (to a bad sales day); it could be a marketing issue. As a new artist, you might not be aware of these and feel discouraged and internalise it, or draw relation to your art being not good.”

But ultimately, the exposure for smaller brands is unparalleled, given the high barrier to entry to selling in retail outlets or malls, he notes.

“I’m very pro social media because I’ve reaped the benefits, but I know it’s a struggle for a lot of illustrators,” adds the entrepreneur, who also consigns at gift shops Haengbok Supplies in Haji Lane and Co-Play in Plaza Singapura.

“Most artists don’t put themselves out on social media, so doing booths is a great way to get started. You get to make new friends, and finding community is very important. Things can get very lonely. Having a community makes the whole journey enjoyable.”