About This Stamp
Merging traditional artwork with modern design touches, this stamp depicts one of many stories about 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.
Inspired by the traditional story of Raven setting free the sun, the moon, and the stars, Tlingit/Athabascan artist Rico Worl depicts Raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form.
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.
Antonio Alcalá served as art director for this stamp.
The Raven Story stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp is always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Artist
Rico Worl
Rico Lanáat’ Worl is a Tlingit/Athabascan designer. With his sister, Crystal, he is the co-founder of Trickster Company, which promotes innovative indigenous design. Whether designing skateboards, playing cards, jewelry, or other items, Worl creates artwork that speaks to the experience of living with indigenous values as a modern person.
Passionate about representing his hometown, his tribe, and his family through art and design, Worl intends for his work to make clear that indigenous people do not belong to the past but continue to live, thrive, and create in fresh, energetic ways. By using formline, the design style of the indigenous people of the northern Northwest Coast, he hopes to bring traditional art and culture to young people in an everyday, affordable way while encouraging them to share and show cultural pride among their family and friends.
As a member of the Sockeye Salmon clan of the Raven House in Haines, Alaska, Worl actively participates in sacred ceremonies. He is eager to keep learning about traditional ways and share them with his family.
Worl earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Juneau, Alaska, where he has served on the board of the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. His work is featured in the collections of the Anchorage Museum, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington.
Worl’s first design for the U.S. Postal Service is featured on the 2021 Raven Story stamp.