Custom Sticker Trends in 2025: What's Hot This Year?

Stickers act as a powerful branding tool for self-expression. And the sticker industry is evolving rapidly. With the advancement in printing technology and shift in customer trends, businesses are finding new ways to utilise stickers for brand visibility, customer engagement, and high revenue. 

Whether you are a startup, run a personal brand, or a company, leverage the power of custom stickers to connect, promote, and express your brand story. Because sticker trends in 2025 are all set to be innovative and interesting than ever. Let’s dive deep into these exciting sticker trends: 

Vintage-Inspired Aesthetics

Vintage-inspired aesthetic stickers are decorative stickers that are designed with elements that evoke past eras. These stickers usually incorporate designs, colours, and imagery revealing specific historical periods. 

You can customise specific items like journals with vintage-inspired aesthetics stickers. Using these stickers adds a touch of nostalgia and a unique style to your products. Vintage stickers may mimic the look of aged paper, leather, or other materials associated with vintage aesthetics.

Specific decades, including the 70s, 80s, and 90s, or broader vintage themes like antique, retro, or cottagecore, inspire the design of stickers. Items like laptops, water bottles, notebooks, phone cases, and other belongings can be decorated with vintage stickers.

Halftone Patterns

Halftone pattern stickers are decals or vinyl stickers that use a halftone pattern. This pattern is basically a design made up of small dots to create an image. Halftone pattern mimics shades of colour or tones by varying the size or spacing of small dots.

Such patterns are commonly used in printing and graphic design to get a vintage or retro aesthetic. When applied to stickers, a halftone pattern creates an image or design where the dots are visible, giving a unique, textured look. The density of the dots can be adjusted to create different tonal values. 

Halftone stickers are popular for adding a retro or artistic flair to walls, windows, mirrors, and other surfaces. And creating unique and customisable stickers for laptops, notebooks, and more. You can also use halftone patterns as a distinctive design element for brand logos or promotional materials. 

Holographic Magic

Holographic magic stickers are decorative stickers made from a special material that creates a rainbow-like iridescent effect when viewed from various angles. This effect is gained by using a metallised film that diffracts light. 

These stickers are popular for crafts, scrapbooking, and adding a unique and eye-catching element to various items. The core feature of holographic magic stickers is their ability to shift colours and create a shimmering, rainbow effect depending on the viewing angle. 

Holographic stickers are often made to be durable and waterproof while becoming suitable for various surfaces and environments. The unique visual appeal of holographic stickers makes them a popular choice for creative projects and adds a touch of magic to everyday items. 

Hand-Drawn Illustrations

Stickers featuring designs created using traditional art techniques, like drawing with pencils rather than being digitally created, are hand-drawn illustrations. These stickers often have a unique, personal, and artistic feel due to the imperfections and expressive qualities of hand-drawn art. 

Hand-drawn illustration stickers can range from simple doodles to more elaborate illustrations. They are used for various purposes, including decorating personal belongings, creating planner stickers, or adding a personal touch to crafts. 

Many hand-drawn illustrations are scanned or photographed and then digitally edited, e.g., cleaned up, vectorized, and coloured to be printed as stickers. Many brands have started using die-cut stickers as a good choice for letting your hand-drawn illustrations live "out of the box".

Minimalist Stickers 

Minimalist stickers are designs that prioritise simplicity and clean aesthetics. They often feature limited colour palettes, basic shapes, and uncluttered layouts. Space is used effectively, with plenty of white space to avoid a cluttered appearance. 

These stickers typically use a small number of colours, often neutral tones or a few carefully chosen accent colours. They can serve both practical purposes, like labeling or tracking, and aesthetic ones, adding a touch of personality. 

Add a touch of branding with simple, elegant, minimalist stickers. Your business can use these custom stickers in planners, journals, and other organisational tools to add subtle visual interest without overwhelming the space. You can also use minimalist stickers on labeling containers and storage with a cohesive and subtle aesthetic. 

Gradients 

Gradient-styled stickers are decorative or promotional stickers that utilise a colour gradient. The gradient is a smooth transition between two or more colours. Gradient stickers are used to add visual interest, depth, and a modern aesthetic to various surfaces. 

The core feature of a gradient sticker is the smooth blending of colours while creating a visually appealing effect. Businesses can use them on packaging, promotional materials, or as part of their logo design. Gradient stickers can be customised with various colour combinations and design options to complement individual preferences or branding needs. 

Your brand can also utilise frosted gradient stickers to offer a level of privacy while still allowing light to pass through. This capability makes gradient stickers suitable for windows, glass doors, partitions, notebooks, journals, and planners. 

Final Words

Since you have explored custom sticker trends in 2025: what’s hot this year, we have only discussed a few of the many trends we are seeing for 2025. As a brand, it depends on your business needs and customer demands whether to choose a new trend or start your own new trend.

However, you can decide it by talking with your target audience by participating in the online forums they use. And find every way you can to step into their shoes to know what excites, inspires, and motivates them.

The most significant “trend” to follow will always be the one that resonates with your audience. In case you need help choosing fascinating custom stickers, contact OXO Packaging to sleigh your competitors and fascinate your target audience.