The beginning of MADMAX

What started as doodles during finals week turned into a grassroots art experiment—and an unexpected lesson in guerrilla marketing. Project: The Beginning of MadMax began with a single fish sketch, vectorized during a summer internship, and evolved into a campus-wide (and international) sticker campaign. Armed with 800 stickers, a self-funded budget from a waiting job, and a small network of friends-turned-distributors, I set out to place my artwork directly into the public eye—literally.

Strategically hidden all over my college campus on desks, poles, parking garages, water bottles, and even a friends car (who put them there on her own accord), my fish popped up everywhere—from Dallas to even my international travels during this time. The result? Organic buzz. Conversations. Curiosity. And one simple question I never expected to hear from a professor: “You’re the fish sticker guy?”

What I learned:

• Visibility builds intrigue – The more people saw the stickers, the more they wanted to know.

• Scarcity drives demand – With limited placement and no name attached, the mystery made people ask around, turning passive viewers into active seekers.

The beginning of MadMax taught me that marketing doesn’t always start with a logo or ad—it starts with a feeling. Curiosity. And familiarity.