WhatsApp Stickers

2023 — 2024

In a first-of-its-kind Residence collaboration, we combined the talents of It’s Nice That, BUCK LA, and BUCK Sydney to revamp WhatsApp’s sticker design and strategy from top to bottom. High-fives were in five time zones!

whatsapp.com ↗

WhatsApp’s stickers needed a fresh update to keep up with current trends in the sticker space. They wanted expressive packs that spoke to specific global markets and tastemaking Gen Z-ers (yes, them again).

With our learnings from style explorations, audits of the sticker landscape, and illustrative trend reports, we created a robust, informative Sticker Playbook.

We defined a set of Visual Principles to guide our work — Emotion, Dimensionality, Color, and Expressive Motion.

Here’s how we break that down…

-> Emotion

Most of our stickers are tried and true favorites like excitement, fear, joy, and glee — and we try to show a cheeky of these emotions with each new sticker. All of the stickers on the right convey anger, but definitely don’t feel like repeats. Our goal was to cover the spectrum — for every nuanced emotion, a corresponding sticker.

-> Dimensionality

Dimensionality can mean a number of things for a WhatsApp sticker — drawn perspective, gradient shading, or even slick, z-depth camera moves in animation. Flat stickers are out. Give us depth or give us death.

-> Color (or Colour)

Our global team of artists argue if it’s “colour” or “color,” but we had no problem injecting the brand-coded WhatsApp Green into the sticker palettes as much as possible. I think it was Gordon Gekko who said, “Green is good.”

-> Expressive Motion

All of our stickers, even the stills, have implied motion. But they really sing (sigh, cry, yawn, hug, dance, drum, walk, ride, race, and kiss) in animation.

Evergreen Packs

Evergreen packs are relevant all year round and are targeted to a wide variety of users. This is where we could really get wacky — self-reflective aliens, rizzed up capybaras, and flirty (almost filthy) chicken nuggets.

-> New Year, Same Me

Me? Change? Never. This pack is all about accepting yourself, setting boundaries, and leaning into what makes you you. Get your green glow and go.

-> I’m Just a Girl

Girl power but make it 2024.

-> Tropical Trio

This pack imagines you and all your besties are on vacation — only you’re all fruit.

No microdosing required.

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Cultural Moments

Cultural Moments are special sticker packs themed around specific holidays. These can be global, like New Year’s Eve, or region-specific like Detty December. Throughout the year, we worked with artists who identified with specific holidays to add authenticity and a personal touch to the stickers.

-> Detty December

One of our favorite collaborations was how we approached a cultural moment sticker pack called Detty December.

With guidance from WhatsApp and the BUCK strategy team, we researched this beloved holiday homecoming that is celebrated among the African diaspora. Then, we engaged West African artist Yellow Yemisi to design a sticker style that felt authentic, personal, and full of joy. Our BUCK Sydney team worked with Yellow to support her vision in both design and animation, bringing the stickers to life.

-> Harvest Season

This pack is for all of those autumn lovers who can’t wait to break out their Oktoberfest lederhosen, jump in a pile of freshly raked leaves, and devour some mooncakes.

-> Holiday Season

This pack is about the two essential universal truths: everyone loves the holiday season and cats are big dorks. No matter if it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali or Kwanzaa in your house, there’s a dorky holiday sweater or other item for your cat to pose in.