Ten Questions with Zoltron of Sticker Robot

First off, want to introduce yourself?
Name: Zoltron
Age: 36
Location: SF Bay Area
Occupation: Grafix
Years doing this: 15

Now, you’ve done a lot of work as a graphic/poster/website designer, but stickers seem to be a pretty interesting/unusual/esoteric business, how exactly did you get into it?

I’ve always had somewhat of an adhesive fetish. When I was a little kid I used to collect stickers. My bedroom was covered in bumper stickers. In high school, I used to break into the Printshop and run the presses at night. I’d do 80’s hardcore stickers, RKL, DRI, Victims Family, whatever… and lots of anti-Bush propaganda (probably about the same time Bush Jr. was doing blow at Rangers games). The shop teacher was a devout Republican so my midnight mechanics didn’t last long. When I started Zoltron, me and friend used our 12th grade tactics at a Berkeley Art School and did pre-dawn runs on their silkscreen equipment. It was kind of a natural progression to turn the hobby into a business, where we could print for other artists. All that said, after 9-11, when everyone was waving American Flags, I did an Evil Bush street campaign and sent off the a local printer to make stickers. They refused to print it. I argued that freedom of speech is as American as it gets, but they just wouldn’t go for it. So we started Sticker Robot. Free Speech for a penny a square inch.

You’ve been printing all the Shepard Fairey Hope stickers, how did this come to be?

It was really casual, the whole thing. I wrote Shepard an email and offered to print some stickers. The next day, he emailed me the master file and said go for it. Once we did the run, it started circulating that we had printed the stickers and we were suddenly inundated with emails about where people could get them. So, we discussed it with Shepard and decided to sell them cheap. We blew through a lot, fast. The idea was to get out as many of these out there as possible.

How many Hope stickers do you think have been printed so far?

With the cell stickers, probably 200K, 75% of which have been given away to support the cause.

You designed a print of your own… what was the inspiration/creative process behind this?

I love distress and antiquated imagery. I wanted to make an old 50s style movie poster with Obama’s image and a coming soon kind of thing. I grabbed his press photo, recreated it in illustrator, brought it into Photoshop, ran it through the wash a few times, then just beat it down until I was happy with it.

Even though the print was of a limited run (250 each) you didn’t sign or number them… I’m curious, was there a reason?

I hadn’t planned on selling them. I just wanted to do a street campaign, so I did an offset run of 500, but most everyone who saw it wanted one, so I decided to put ’em up on the site and they all sold out.
I might still release a small run of Giclee prints.

We’ve seen people on Ebay countless times selling sets of Hope stickers, often for 2-5 times what they paid.. even though they’re still available through Sticker Robot! What exactly are your thoughts on this?

Yeah, you would think people would Google “Hope Stickers” before throwing down $9 a pop?
After we printed the first run, but before we started selling them, one Hope sticker sold on Ebay for $108. It’s fascinating, really. We talked about potentially selling these ourselves on eBay for our normal prices – to try and combat the people that were trying to cash in on what we’ve all been volunteering since day one. Truth is, we didn’t want to try and control everything, so we just king of flooded the market. Seems like it’s evened out.

We know there’s a Ron English and a Mac sticker on the way… could you give us a clue as to who you’ve got coming up after that?

Aren’t those two paintings amazing? Nice guys too. Yeah, we have 3 more artists lined up. Here’s a clue: they all support Obama.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a McBush poster, that treads the delicate issue of bashing a war hero. I just tell myself… the guy’s been through worse.

Big thanks to Zoltron for taking the time to do this interview.
For more information or to cop some stickers, please check out
Zoltron
and
Sticker Robot