About

Sparkle Starbase is a sticker-focused shop based in Chicago, on Planet Earth. Our stickers maintain a retro vending machine feel with present-day messages of empowerment and queer joy. We create small-batch stickers in-house, which allows us to be flexible and use creative sticker shapes and materials.

We believe that there's not enough kitschy, engaging, queer, punk, disabled, colorful, affordable art in the world, and we're here to help! Everyone should be able to treat themselves to a small, colorful piece of joy. You should be able to purchase items that reflect yourself that are actually made by someone like you, and not a mega-corp making a shitty bland version. We feel that beautiful things are a way to survive ugly times.

Sparkle Starbase is owned and operated by Fen Slattery, and was founded in 2023. Fen previously sold their designs through print-on-demand services, and happily switched to physically producing their own work. Major influences on the style of Sparkle Starbase are gas station vending machines, dollar store toy aisles, faux-tropical tourist traps in Wisconsin, and Katamari Damacy.

Fen Slattery is an artist and designer, originally from a small manufacturing-oriented city in Wisconsin. They've been creating stickers and stationery since they first learned to type and use a computer as a kid in the 90s. After finding their new home in Chicago during the Great Recession, Fen built their skills at print shops, costume stores, and all kinds of wacky office jobs. They've designed everything from websites to role-playing games to business cards to accessible spaces. Now, one autism diagnosis and gender transition later, they're focusing full-time on their art.