Stickers as Identity and Memory Artifacts: A Study Of Visual Practices by Visual Communication Design Students in Event Campaigns

Abstract

This article examines stickers as a visual communication medium that operates beyond its graphic function, placing it as a discourse of identity and an artifact of memory in the visual practices of Visual Communication Design (DKV) students. Based on the perspectives of material culture and visual discourse, this study maps the shift in contemporary visual culture from large-scale media to portable micro-visual objects that are easily circulated in social interactions. This study uses an interpretive qualitative approach with visual discourse analysis methods to examine the process of production, distribution, and use of stickers in the context of student event campaigns. The results of the analysis show that stickers function as a performative medium that mediates the construction of identity, social affiliation, and collective experience. The practices of giving, sticking, and storing stickers show that the meaning of stickers is not solely determined by their visual representation, but also by the social relations and cultural context surrounding their circulation. Thus, stickers can be understood as a visual discourse that actively shapes the dynamics of visual culture in the academic environment of Visual Communication Design, while also emphasizing the importance of micro visual objects in the ecology of contemporary visual communication.