In praise of... street art stickers
The universe is filled with messages. The stickers that blanket lampposts, bins, and doorways often fade into the background of the urban landscape - but might just have something to tell you.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that I love words in all their forms. I’m the person who wears slogan tees and sweatshirts, loves art that incorporates language, and owns an ever-growing number of items, from mugs to notebooks, featuring phrases that make me smile.
I also have a minor obsession with street art stickers that have quite literally stopped me in my tracks at times, and provided me with messages that I needed to hear in difficult moments. Here are just a few that spoke to me over the past five years.
J’existe - Paris, 3 January 2020 - 3 March 2022 - 10 April 2023
On 3 January 2020 I was struggling towards the Gare de l’Est with my young family and several suitcases in tow, after another new year characterised by a mix of frustration and sadness. At midnight three days earlier, my husband had left our holiday home to enjoy a better view of the fireworks - leaving me alone with our sleeping toddler and nine-year-old. Once again, I had felt that I did not matter.
It seemed symbolic that we hadn’t begun the new year together - a reflection of our deeply fractured connection, with both of us feeling unseen by the other.
Suddenly, the words J’EXISTE J’EXISTE J’EXISTE caught my eye - a sticker in triplicate on a random lamppost. Uncharacteristically, I stopped, turned back, and took a photo. That photo became my screensaver for a long time.
It articulated what was essentially a silent scream inside of me: I exist; I matter; I deserve consideration, attention, and love. Looking back, I honestly think this moment marked a turning point in my self worth.
I have seen the J’existe sticker several times in the years since, in various iterations, in Paris and London. These words are so simple, but so fundamental: everyone deserves to feel seen.
Optimismuss - Stuttgart, 20 June 2021
In summer 2021 my children, husband and I were, like the rest of the world, stuck in what felt like a never-ending pandemic. Every dawn felt like groundhog day, and the phrase “Things can only get better” had long become a well-worn cliché. After 16 long months, we still didn’t know when we would see our families in the UK again.
On a walk one day, I passed a sticker with the lettering OPTI MIS MUSS. It’s a play on the words optimism (Optimismus) and must (muss) in German - essentially saying optimism is a must.
I took a deep breath (and a photo).
Two months later, I hugged my parents for the first time since February 2020.
You Got This - Stuttgart, 15 May 2024
Three years on. I was divorced but still living with my ex, and in the fifth month of renovating an apartment that I had expected to move into eight months earlier with my kids.
The list of problems felt overwhelming: no water in the kitchen, unsafe electrics, and builders who had all-but abandoned the project after I turned down the clumsy advances of one of the workers.
Trying to hold it together, pay the spiralling bills, and care for my children at the same time, I felt like I was sinking. One morning, as I crossed the road to my office, I saw a lamppost sticker I had never noticed before (it is still there).
The message was exactly what I needed to hear. Even better, it turned out to be true.
Manifest Da Ting - London, 31 December 2024
On New Year’s Eve afternoon, 2024, I was standing outside the Tate Modern in London waiting for a close friend, my children happily on the way to Spain with their dad. A few days earlier, I had made a vision board for the first time ever - a manifestation of what I want the next year to look like: a life shaped by joy, connection, freedom, and love.
On a lamppost not far from the gallery entrance, I saw this sticker.
Manifest da ting.
Very London, very timely, and a reminder that life isn’t something that just happens to us – we can be active participants in shaping our future.
Let’s evolve - Stuttgart, 6 January 2025
Last week. Back home, a sunny and cold winter’s day, a walk in the park with my kids.
“This is so nice,” I said more than once to my now-teenage daughter (who may or may not have rolled her eyes). I felt suffused with the happiness of the simple things - my son playing hide and seek behind the trees, my daughter interlocking her arm with mine.
Everything had changed. As we neared home, I spotted this:
Over the past five years I have been constantly reminded of the value of change, even when sticking to the status quo feels the far easier option. Slowly, but surely, my life has transformed.
For me, the words Let’s evolve are also a mantra of sorts for the coming year, whatever it brings. For all of us, life is marked by challenging times as well as beautiful moments, and will change us in ways that we don’t yet know. Being open to and at peace with this isn’t always easy – but I’m going to try.
Do you ever notice street art stickers? Have their words ever jumped out at you? Let me know below.
Ah, now the sticker is my profile picture. Shark Pizza
Early February not long after I read this, freezing in London on daily cycle commute after months of no sun. This sticker gave me such a lift, knowing we were going to Naples a few weeks later, home of pizza....and sharks, lifting the gloom. Only managed to photograph it this weekend but promised myself a comment when I finally did. Now the comment is complete and there is no way to upload a picture. I'll have to send it somehow