By Shanece Brent, Staff Writer

Published in print Oct. 8, 2014

Ashley Hallenbeck is a senior New Media and Design major, who’s been succeeding  as a professional sticker-maker. Ashley’s art style is unique and vibrant; her sketchbook is filled with drawings of astonishingly bright aliens with three eyes, and colorful space babes with multiple extra limbs.  Also among the characters in her sketchbook are aliens pondering pizza, cats with six eyes and women with three arms. “People double take, and remember your designs better if they have that little extra feature,” she explained. Ashley loves drawing people and things with character, and stickers as a medium “lend them selves amazingly well to that,” she said.

Seeing artists selling their work for hundreds of dollars and thinking, ‘It’s only a print, it’s not worth that much,’ is what gave Ashley the idea to begin creating and selling stickers.

“I was looking for a really cheap way to put my art out there, and you can sell stickers for really cheap”, she said. “And I love stickers.”

In the beginning, Ashley’s idea was met with some criticism. “Prior to getting made, everyone thought it was a bad idea, except for my number one supporter, my boyfriend,” Ashley recalled. “But everyone else was like, Where are you gonna put it? Where are you gonna get stickers made? Who’s going to buy stickers? And I’m like, Do you guys not understand the sticker market? It’s there!’”

And so far her venture has been a success. In fact, Ashley orders 100 new stickers a month, and she now has two sticker machines in Greensboro: one located at Common Grounds coffee shop on South Elam Ave, and another in the lobby of UNCG’s Gatewood Studio Arts Building. At these machines, you can purchase one of Ashley’s high quality stickers at random for 50 cents apiece. Ashley’s sticker machines have also been to UNCG Homecoming, Coraddi release parties, The Spartan trader and The Tate Street Festival.

When asked where she gets her inspiration, Ashley cites multiple sources. She is inspired by the work of Jason Levesque aka Stuntkid, who was her first exposure to digital art. She also draws inspiration from the ideas of her clients. “A lot of my work is commission work, and sometimes people come to me with these really weird characters they want drawn, or a cool, funky, little alien person and from there I’m like ‘I should draw another alien person all for myself,’” she said.

In addition to the important principals of digital art and web design, one of the most meaningful things Ashley has learned as an artist is to share her ideas with others. “The idea is essentially to tell all of your ideas to everyone, instead of hoarding them,” Hallenbeck said. “I tell other people how I produce my stickers and how to get it done cheaply.”

In the future, Ashley hopes to branch out with her art, eventually having her designs on more than just stickers and professional prints.

“My dream is to be the next Lisa Frank!” Hallenbeck said. “I’ll have trapper keepers, and folders and fuzzy posters!”

In addition to selling stickers, Ashley often does caricature drawings. In fact, she will be drawing caricatures for free at the Mischief Night event at Menace Inc. Studios on October 24. She’ll also have a table at the upcoming Hand to Hand Market at the Carolina Theater on November 29.

To see more of Ashley’s work and to contact her directly, you can visit http://www.ashleyasdfgh.com where you can view her art, as well as purchase professional prints and stickers.