C.L. Wirling is an artist, designer, and illustrator living north of Boston, MA. She recently graduated from Westfield State University in Massachusetts, with her bachelor’s in art and a concentration in illustration. She has a deep passion for storytelling and character design, drawn to elements of fantasy, femininity, magic, and movement. We were introduced to C.L. though our pal Rob Kimmel who teaches illustration at Westfield State.
Have you designed a stamp before?
My first experience designing a poster stamp was last March, as part of an illustration class I was taking. My professor had a connection to The Portland Stamp Company, and because of this, assigned us to create two stamps and a logo for a fictitious postal service. I came up with the “Faerie Correspondence Service,” which became the Butterfly Faerie in the center of this edition, and the Dragonfly Faerie to the right. All of us received our final stamps at the end of the semester, printed via The Portland Stamps Company, which led to Niko reaching out to me asking if I’d like to expand my two stamps into a full edition.
Editor’s note: Here’s our Instagram post showing the original class stamp sheet
What was the most interesting or fun aspect of designing a poster stamp? What unique challenges did it present?
The transition from designing individual stamps to a full sheet was very interesting. I really enjoyed brainstorming how my two existing stamps were going to flow into a larger composition and how I could use the gold rings to connect them all together. One challenging aspect was choosing colors, as I found it difficult finding palettes that worked independently and cohesively at the same time. This was especially true when deciding the color scheme of the four stamps located on each corner: they needed to be muted enough to not clash with the faeries in the middle, but not so dull they’d look mediocre in comparison. I messed around with those four for quite some time before landing on their final versions. All in all, the creation of this edition was unlike other projects I have done before, equally challenging as it was rewarding.
Tell us about the art. Did you create something new for this stamp?
All the art featured in this edition is new, formed around the original Butterfly Faerie and Dragonfly Faerie stamps. The concept of the Faerie Correspondence Service was a sort of magic pen-pal system, a postal service for sending letters from the human world to the faerie world. The idea came about by combining the aesthetic of a favorite artist, Alphonse Mucha, with a favorite subject, faeries. Over the past year, I had fallen very much in love with the style of the Art Nouveau movement, especially Mucha’s work, and early in the stamps’ creation I knew I wanted to do something inspired by it. Faeries, something I have loved to draw ever since I was a child, were a perfect fit for the theme.
Anything else?
I’m a big believer that diversity is a key component in rich and memorable character design, a belief I really wanted to be reflected in these faeries. Not only is each faerie inspired by a different, winged insect (Ladybug, Moth, Butterfly, Dragonfly, and Honeybee), but I included a variety of skin tones, body types, hair textures, and facial structures. Humans are innately diverse, so I don’t see why faeries wouldn’t be too. Thank you Portland Stamp Co for inviting me to create this beautiful edition with you!