Bumperactive

Bumperactive is a make-your-own-bumper-sticker ecommerce web site and pop culture blog. The site offers small-batch custom bumper stickers in two sizes, 3-inch by 11-inch "bumper" stickers and 5-inch by 5-inch "window" stickers, with no minimum quantity to purchase. Users can create stickers through Bumperactive's online StickerMaker tool, or upload their own graphics file; the company then prints and mails the stickers within four days. Each sticker customers create and order is automatically added to the Bumperactive catalog, where others may also purchase it. A 22 percent share of the revenue from catalog sales is awarded to the original sticker designer, or to a cause or charity he or she designates. Currently, there are more than 700 sticker designs in the catalog.

The site's motto is "Welcome to the Marketplace of Ideas." Accordingly, Bumperactive also includes a running ranking of each bumper sticker's total copies sold and number of unique buyers so that visitors may view the relative popularity of various bumper stickers. Bumperactive further claims to be the "only make-a-sticker site on the 'net integrating the Creative Commons licenses," enabling sticker creators to select terms of use for their designs that are less restrictive than traditional copyright.

Unique Sticker Design

Bumperactive's bumper stickers are unique in that they prominently display the site's web address at the bottom. The logo bubble breaks the plane of the bottom edge of the sticker, resulting in a distinctive silhouette. Some sticker aficionados view the bubble as an unsightly intrusion upon the underlying sticker. However, Bumperactive views the bubble as a "radical design innovation" that "completes the loop between the actual- and information- superhighways of the world." According to the company, the logo bubble informs people where they can purchase their own copy of the design, facilitating the dispersion of the sticker designer's message in a viral fashion.

Sticker Production Process

Bumperactive prints its stickers on demand using the VersaCAMM SP-300 Roland digital-ink jet printer, on Oracal 3651 adhesive backed vinyl. Unlike screen printing, the traditional method of bumper sticker manufacture, digital inkjet printing allows the printing of unlimited colors at no added cost and even photo images. The company guarantees all stickers against the effects of fading and weathering for two years.

Notable Bumper Stickers
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Bumperactive is the "official bumper sticker provider" of the Crawford Peace House, World Chess Boxing Organisation and OneWebDay. While these "official stickers" are included in the Bumperactive catalog, they include the respective organization's web address in the logo bubble, not Bumperactive. In March 2006 Bumperactive also commissioned a series of seven bumper sticker designs from science fiction author Bruce Sterling, accompanied by an email interview with Sterling.

Bumperactive was founded in 2002 by Kyle Johnson, a former reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and The Christian Science Monitor who lives in Austin, Texas.

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