Call For Artists

Help us turn your artwork into community-supporting products.

Sparkly Rocketship is looking for artists to collaborate on community-supporting products, including our growing Creative Resistance collection and a new Minnesota Strong line celebrating local pride, resilience, solidarity, and care.

We turn artist designs into small-batch products like stickers, buttons, earrings, and pins. Artists choose the cause or causes connected to their designs, and each product page shows the donation math so customers can see where their money is going.

We are especially excited to work with Minnesota and Twin Cities artists, LGBTQ+ artists, BIPOC artists, underrepresented artists, and artists whose work is rooted in community, mutual aid, local care, justice, joy, or resistance.

Contact us about collaborating!

Quick Summary

• You keep ownership of your artwork.
• Our rights are non-exclusive.
• We can make and sell approved products using your design.
• You can revoke permission later.
• Products may be sold online, in shops, at markets, or through fundraisers.
• You can restrict product types, materials, or sales channels.
• You choose the cause or causes your products support.
• You can donate your artist share or receive payment.
• Paid artist share starts at 10% of what Sparkly Rocketship receives.
• Wholesale and consignment sales may reduce artist share and donations.
• Paid artists must complete a W-9 before payment.
• You choose how you are credited, including anonymously.
• We may make small production adjustments.
• Major design changes require artist approval.
• Reaching out does not commit you to anything.
• Final details are confirmed before launch.

Reaching out does not lock you into anything

If you contact us about a collaboration, you are not granting product rights immediately and you are not committing to launch a product.

Rights, payment or donation choices, product formats, sales channels, proof approval, and other collaboration details will be discussed before a design goes live.

What we are looking for

We are currently looking for designs in several broad categories. Your work does not need to fit perfectly into one category; these are starting points for collaboration.

Minnesota Strong

Designs inspired by Minnesota people, places, communities, values, and resilience.

This could include artwork about local pride, mutual care, neighborhoods, nature, schools, families, solidarity, community support, or anything that feels rooted in Minnesota.

Creative Resistance

Designs that support justice-focused causes and community defense.

This could include artwork related to immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ communities, rent relief, mutual aid, protest support, legal defense, bodily autonomy, collective care, or other similar causes.

Pride / LGBTQIA+

Designs that celebrate, support, defend, and uplift LGBTQIA+ communities.

This could include artwork about queer joy, trans rights, chosen family, pride, visibility, mutual care, protest, community safety, bodily autonomy, gender expression, love, resilience, or solidarity.

Products in this category may support LGBTQIA+ organizations, mutual aid funds, legal support, gender-affirming care funds, housing support, youth programs, community spaces, or other artist-selected causes.

Creative Resistance - Sister Cities

Designs that connect local creative resistance with communities, movements, and struggles beyond Minnesota.

This category is for artwork rooted in solidarity across cities, borders, and communities, including immigrant communities, diaspora communities, international sister-city relationships, mutual aid efforts, and shared struggles for safety, dignity, housing, freedom, and care.

Artists may use this category to support causes tied to another city, region, or community they are connected to,

Product styles

We can currently work with several different product styles, depending on the artwork. Some designs work best in full color, some work best as bold two-tone acrylic pieces, and others work best as simple single-tone silhouettes where the shape itself carries the message. 

Full-color print designs

Best for:

• Stickers
• Buttons
• Full-color sublimated earrings and pins

Full-color art is ideal for illustrations, colorful text designs, detailed graphics, gradients, painted textures, and designs that need more than two colors.

Single-tone silhouette designs

Best for:

• Laser-cut acrylic earrings and pins
• Simple charms

Single-tone designs use the outline or silhouette of the artwork to carry the message. These work best when the shape itself is recognizable, expressive, or symbolic, even without added colors or internal detail.

This style is ideal for designs where the form is the point: a bold object, symbol, animal, state shape, hand gesture, word shape, icon, or other recognizable profile.

Good single-tone designs usually have:

• A strong, recognizable outer shape
• Clean edges
• Minimal small details
• A silhouette that still makes sense at earring or pin size
• Optional cutouts or engraved lines, if needed
• Enough thickness in narrow areas so the finished product is durable

For this style, the outside shape matters most. If the design needs internal detail to make sense, it may work better as a two-tone acrylic product, full-color sticker/button, or full-color sublimated product.

Two-tone designs

Best for:

• Laser-cut acrylic earrings and pins

Two-tone designs work best when they can be represented in two material colors, such as a top layer and a background layer, or a cut/engraved design using strong shapes and clean contrast.

Future product formats

We may add more product types over time, including magnets, keychains, ornaments, shirts, bags, and other print-on-demand items.

These future formats will be discussed with artists before use. When you collaborate with us, you can tell us if there are product formats, materials, sales channels, or production styles you do not want your design used for. We will respect those limits.

Artwork file guidelines

For full-color artwork, PNG files are preferred.

For two-tone artwork, SVG files are preferred, though high-resolution PNG files can also work depending on the design.

For single-tone silhouette designs, SVG files are strongly preferred. High-resolution PNG files may work if the silhouette is clean and easy to trace. The design should read clearly from the outer shape alone, since the final product may rely on one material color rather than printed detail.

Please do not send JPGs or other lossy file formats as final artwork. They usually do not preserve the clean edges and detail needed for production.

Suggested PNG guidelines:

• Minimum 3000 px on the shortest side when possible
• Transparent background preferred when relevant
• 300 DPI preferred for print-style artwork
• Clean edges and high contrast are helpful
• Avoid tiny details that may disappear when the design is made into a small product

For two-tone artwork, black outlines should be included only when they are part of the actual design. Please do not add black outlines just to separate colors unless those outlines are intended to appear in the finished product.

Do not worry if you are unsure whether your art will work. Send the idea anyway. We can help figure out whether it is better suited for stickers, buttons, acrylic earrings, pins, sublimated products, or something else.

How collaboration works

The basic process is simple:

1. You submit interest in collaborating.
2. You can include design ideas, sample artwork, preferred product types, and any causes you would like to support.
3. Sparkly Rocketship reviews the design for fit, feasibility, and cause alignment.
4. We create a digital proof, sample, or product mockup.
5. You approve the final product direction if you want approval before launch.
6. Sparkly Rocketship creates the product listing, handles production, and fulfills orders.
7. Sales support the artist-selected cause or causes, and optionally provide an artist share.

You do not need to have everything figured out before reaching out. It is okay to start with an idea, a sketch, a past design, or a general cause you care about.

Causes and donations

Artists may choose one or more causes for sales of their products to support.

Sparkly Rocketship is not trying to be overly restrictive about cause selection. We want artists to support the communities and organizations that matter to them. However, we reserve the right to decline causes that do not align with our values or that we cannot practically support through transparent donations.

Our general tenets are:

• Support local communities and mutual care
• Support LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, BIPOC communities, workers, families, students, and other communities facing harm or exclusion
• Support bodily autonomy, housing stability, legal defense, community safety rooted in care, and access to basic needs
• Oppose racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, misogyny, authoritarianism, and other forms of hate or dehumanization
• Avoid causes that promote violence, harassment, exclusion, or harm toward vulnerable communities

If a proposed cause is not a fit, we will say so and, when possible, work with the artist to choose another option.

Donation estimates may vary by sales channel. Direct website purchases usually produce the clearest donation estimate because Sparkly Rocketship receives the retail sale directly. Wholesale, consignment, shop, market, fundraiser, or partner sales may produce different donation amounts because Sparkly Rocketship may receive a reduced wholesale or consignment payout rather than the full retail price.

Artist payment options

Artist shares are generally calculated from the amount Sparkly Rocketship receives from the sale.

For direct website sales, that is usually the product sale price before production costs, fees, overhead, donations, taxes, or other deductions are subtracted. For wholesale, consignment, retail partner, market, or fundraiser sales, Sparkly Rocketship may receive a lower amount than the final retail price, so the artist share and donation amount may also be lower unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Artists can choose between two options.

Option 1: Donate your artist share

You may choose to donate your artist share to the cause or causes connected to your product.

In this model, the artist share is added to the amount available for donation, helping maximize the community impact of each sale.

Option 2: Receive your artist share

You may choose to be paid an artist share from sales of your products.

Our current starting point is an artist share of 10% of the amount Sparkly Rocketship receives from the sale before our production costs, fees, overhead, taxes, donations, or other deductions are subtracted.

For direct website sales, this is generally based on the product sale price. For wholesale, consignment, retail partner, market, fundraiser, or other partner-channel sales, this may be based on the amount Sparkly Rocketship actually receives rather than the final retail price paid by the end customer.

This may be adjusted by agreement depending on the product type, pricing, production complexity, and collaboration structure.

Artists who choose payment will need to complete a Form W-9 before payment can be issued. Sparkly Rocketship may issue tax forms, such as Form 1099-NEC or another applicable form, if payments meet applicable reporting requirements.

Artists are responsible for their own taxes on any payments received.

Wholesale, consignment, and retail partner sales

Some Sparkly Rocketship products may be sold through wholesale orders, consignment arrangements, local shops, markets, pop-ups, fundraisers, or other retail partner channels.

These sales can work differently from direct website sales. When a customer buys from the Sparkly Rocketship website, we receive the full retail purchase price before deducting production costs, fees, overhead, artist share, and donations. When products are sold through a shop or retail partner, Sparkly Rocketship may receive only a wholesale price, consignment payout, or other reduced amount rather than the full retail price.

Because of this, wholesale and retail partner sales may affect:

• The estimated donation amount
• The artist share available for payment
• The amount available to donate if the artist chooses to donate their share
• How product costs, fees, and overhead are calculated
• When donation and artist payment totals are finalized

Sparkly Rocketship’s goal is still to keep the model transparent. When possible, product pages and donation summaries will distinguish between direct website sales and wholesale, consignment, or partner sales so customers and artists can understand how the money flows.

If an artist’s product is sold through a wholesale or retail partner channel, the artist share and donation amount may be calculated based on the amount Sparkly Rocketship actually receives, not the final price paid by the retail customer, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

For example, if a product normally sells for $20 on the Sparkly Rocketship website but is sold wholesale to a shop for a lower amount, the artist share and donation amount may be based on the wholesale amount received by Sparkly Rocketship rather than the $20 retail price.

Artists may tell us if they do not want products using their design sold through wholesale, consignment, retail shops, markets, fundraisers, or other partner channels. We will make a good-faith effort to respect those limits.

Where products may be sold

Approved Sparkly Rocketship products may be sold through:

• The Sparkly Rocketship website
• Local markets, pop-ups, and in-person events
• Wholesale orders to retail shops
• Consignment arrangements with retail shops
• Cause-focused fundraisers or community events
• Other approved Sparkly Rocketship sales channels

If you have limits around where products using your design may be sold, please tell us before launch. For example, you may prefer website-only sales, no wholesale, no consignment, no political events, or no specific types of retail partners.

Sparkly Rocketship will make a good-faith effort to respect artist-stated sales channel limits. If a product has already been sold to a wholesale partner before a collaboration ends or before a new restriction is added, we may not be able to recall that product from the shop, but we will stop making new sales or shipments through restricted channels going forward.

Artist credit

Artist credit is available, but not required.

We want customers to know when products are artist-created, and we are happy to credit artists in the ways that feel right to them. Artist credit may include:

• Artist name on the product page
• Artist bio and social links
• Artist tag in Instagram posts when available
• Artist name overlaid on product images
• Artist information on product backing cards or packaging
• Links to artist websites, shops, portfolios, or social profiles

However, we also understand that some artists may prefer to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym, especially when creating work connected to sensitive causes, personal identity, protest, mutual aid, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, or other community issues.

Artists may choose how they want to be credited, including:

• Full public name
• Artist name
• Business/studio name
• Social media handle only
• Pseudonym
• Anonymous / uncredited

If you prefer not to be publicly credited, Sparkly Rocketship will respect that. We may still need to keep private records for collaboration, payment, donation, tax, or bookkeeping purposes, but we will not publish your legal name or identifying information without your permission.

Artwork rights

You keep ownership of your artwork.

Collaborating with Sparkly Rocketship does not give us exclusive rights to your art. You can continue using, selling, licensing, modifying, displaying, or sharing your artwork however you choose.

By submitting artwork for an approved collaboration, you grant Sparkly Rocketship a non-exclusive, artist-revocable commercial license to adapt, produce, market, sell, distribute, wholesale, consign, and fulfill approved products using the approved design through Sparkly Rocketship’s website, in-person events, markets, pop-ups, fundraisers, and retail partner shops.

That means:

• You still own the artwork.
• Sparkly Rocketship can make and sell the agreed-upon products using the design.
• Sparkly Rocketship can sell the approved products through the agreed-upon sales channels.
• Sparkly Rocketship can use product photos, mockups, and related images to market those products while the collaboration is active.
• Sparkly Rocketship may make small production-related adjustments, such as resizing, simplifying, separating layers, adapting colors, or modifying small details so the design works with our materials and production methods.
• Significant design changes will require artist approval.

This license is revocable by the artist. If you decide to end the collaboration, Sparkly Rocketship will stop selling and producing products using your design after reasonable notice.

Because most Sparkly Rocketship products are made on demand, we generally do not maintain large inventory. If a customer has already placed an order before the collaboration ends, Sparkly Rocketship may fulfill that existing order. After the collaboration ends, we will not accept new orders for that design and will remove or disable active product listings as soon as practical.

Because some products may have already been sold to retail partners, Sparkly Rocketship may not be able to remove items that are already in a partner shop’s possession, but we will stop producing new inventory, remove or disable active online listings, and stop sending additional products using that design to retail partners.

After a collaboration ends, Sparkly Rocketship will also stop using product photos and design images for active marketing, except where removal is not practical, such as older social media posts, archived communications, past donation records, accounting records, or historical documentation of prior collaborations.

Product approval

Artists may choose whether they want to approve final product proofs before launch.

Some artists prefer to be very involved in the final product. Others are happy to let Sparkly Rocketship handle production adaptation. Either approach is fine.

For most collaborations, we will create a mockup, proof, or sample before launch. If you want approval rights before the product goes live, let us know during the collaboration process.

Who can apply?

Minnesota and Twin Cities artists are especially encouraged to reach out, but we are open to broader collaborations when the fit is right.

Artists under 18 may be considered only with parent or guardian involvement. A parent or guardian may need to handle communication, approval, tax forms, payment arrangements, and any required collaboration permissions. In some cases, a parent or guardian may need to be the contracting or payment party.

Ready to collaborate?

We would love to hear from you.

You can reach out with a finished design, a work in progress, a sketch, a cause you care about, or just a general idea.

Helpful things to include:

• Your name and artist name
• Instagram, website, or portfolio link
• A short description of your style or idea
• Any sample artwork or design files
• Whether you are interested in stickers, buttons, earrings, pins, or other formats
• Any causes you would like your products to support
• Whether you would prefer to donate your artist share or receive payment
• Any product formats you do not want your design used for
• Any sales channels where you do not want your design sold
• Whether you want to approve final product proofs before launch
• How you would like to be credited publicly, if at all

Contact us about collaborating!

Collaboration terms note

This page summarizes our usual collaboration approach. Final collaboration details, including payment, donation choices, product formats, sales channels, artwork permissions, product approval, and artist credit, may be confirmed separately before launch.