Interview with the creators of special Sedova stickers
In one of the previous news we told you about the annual New Year’s charity fair which was held on December 14 on Sedova Street [https://spb.hse.ru/ba/soc/news/213267940.html], where Sedova stickers were the most popular and sold commodity. We talked with their creators - 1st course students from the educational program "Sociology and Social Informatics" Daria Maltseva and Anna Vasekhina - and learned how it all began and how they see the future of their idea.
How did you come up with the idea of creating stickers?
Dasha: At first, I saw an announcement about the annual New Year’s charity fair and thought that it could be a chic chance to prove myself, and then I also found out that all the costs for materials will be paid by the Higher School of Economics, and so it all began. I was thinking hard how to make something that everybody will like. One day I was sitting with Anya at English language lesson, and she was writing such beautiful letters, that I immediately realized - it must be used somehow. Initially, we wanted to make postcards with different motivational inscriptions in beautiful letters and with the most famous jokes of sociology students. And then we liked this idea so much - to do something related to Sedova, that we left motivational inscriptions.
Anya: Since there is a common symbolism of the HSE, which students from all educational programs buy, demonstrating it on exercise books and T-shirts, I would like to think up something that will distinguish the students from Sedova, and, actually, it worked, because we can see our stickers on notebooks, laptops, etc.
How did the process of creating the images and inscriptions go?
Dasha: Anya drew letters on paper, made beautiful inscriptions, and then I translated them into digital format using a graphic tablet. This, of course, took too much time, but the result justified all the work. Well, and since I prefer to spend time just for illustrations, I, in turn, drew pictures for stickers. Some ideas have arisen long time ago, and now I have a lucky chance to implement them. And one of the pictures was drawn by my four-year-old niece!
Anya: The inscriptions were invented very quickly, because these are basically local jokes and phrases used by students, and I wanted to capture this feature of the case in a product that students can use as an indicator that they are studying at Sedova.
Why did you decide to make stickers, not something else?
Anya: Stickers are something modern that will be definitely used, such a fashionable trend, besides, it was something unusual, which was not at the fair before, so we stopped on them.
Did you have any doubts or worries before the fair about your stickers idea?
Anya: I personally had no doubts about stickers, because in the process of work I sent drafts to my classmates, and even at that moment they were saying that it was a great idea and that they would buy them, so this support drove away all doubts.
Dasha: I had huge doubts, I always do. During the drawing, I already thought that it was all in vain, that nobody would like it, why we were doing something at all, because it was difficult to sit in front of the monitor for several days in a row.
How did the fair go?
Anya: The demand was really huge, we did not expect it at all! There were types of stickers that ended in the first 10 minutes of the fair! We, honestly, couldn’t imagine such a flow of customers.
Dasha: Constantly we had a crowd of people around our place, and by the second class everything was bought, and we had to urgently add another pack. In total, it turned out to sell more than 230 stickers.
Anya: And from 21,000 rubles collected for the entire fair in our building, stickers collected about 12,000 rubles.
Was anyone from our professors interested in your stickers?
Anya: Yes, several professors also bought stickers, asked about the meaning of some of the inscriptions, we explained it to them.
Dasha: We were very pleased with the participation of professors, and also with the fact that the researchers from the Center for Youth Studies took part and asked about the illustrations.
What are your plans for the future?
Anya: We have some ideas for new stickers. Perhaps, they are connected not only with Sedova, but also with the HSE in general. Who knows how all this will be, but we are interested in it, so for now, we will not stop.
Dasha: There was an idea to illustrate scientists, philosophers. A person who is interested, for example, in Marx, will stick a portrait on his laptop, so that it will be possible to promote and popularize some educational topics. In general, we want to move from jokes to more serious pictures.
In general, we want to thank HSE for giving us the opportunity to create and to show ourselves, as well as with covering all printing costs. This was a really important step for us. Thanks a lot!
Anna Timofeeva and Adriana Alieva