Studio A

It’s been a busy few weeks for us and USPS. Last week the USPS issued our latest design: Raven Story. Antonio worked with Tlingit/Athabascan designer and artist Rico Worl to create this newest “forever” stamp.The design depicts a raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form. To create the stamp art, Worl used formline, the traditional design style of the Indigenous people of the northern Northwest Coast.

The stamp is inspired by the traditional story of the raven setting the sun, moon and stars free.It depicts one of many stories about the raven, a figure of great significance to the Indigenous people of the northern Northwest Coast, part of the area that ranges from Southeast Alaska through coastal British Columbia and south into Washington state.

Among the cultures of the region—which include the Tlingit, the Tsimshian, the Haida, the Kwakwaka’wakw and others—the raven plays an essential role in many traditional tales, including stories about the creation of the world. The different peoples of the northern Northwest Coast each have their own culturally specific versions of the raven story, which often convey customs, ethics and cultural inheritances that help communities preserve or affirm their identities.