Unique by Design

There’s magic in the air with this flurry of eye-catching stamps, their designs a collaborative effort by illustrator Bailey Sullivan and art director Greg Breeding.

The Winter Whimsy stamps evoke icy snow crystals and also elicit nostalgia for a wintry paper craft — the lacy, scissor-cut snowflakes that decorate winter classroom windows, a seasonal delight for generations of schoolkids.

While nature serves up six-sided snowflakes, each a shimmering marvel, paper “snowflakes” are often four- or eight-sided; it’s easier for young hands to crease paper into quarters or eighths than into sixths. Careful unfolding reveals elegant designs.

We spoke with Sullivan about her creative process during the design of these stamps. 

There’s such nice symmetry in these designs. Did you achieve that digitally?

Yes, I like to start all of my projects by doing some rough black-and-white digital sketches. I used a symmetry tool that allowed me to draw a stem of the snowflake and have it rotated and reflected to form a full image as I was sketching in real time. That was super helpful for working out how the little details would come together. Once I had a good idea of the basics, I played around with lots of styling options — stroke weights, colors, and detail.  

What mood were you trying to evoke — and how did the design collaboration go?

Greg and I have worked together in the past so he’s able, from my sketches, to understand pretty well what I’m envisioning. I showed him about 10 concepts. He had told me that these stamps should lean more “winter” than “holiday.” That distinction gets tricky, so I presented several color palette options — my favorite part of any project! I came up with a wide range, from an elegant and moody copper–navy pairing to a bright, super-modern palette with hot pink and lime green. The palette we landed on uses blues and cool-toned neutrals, which I feel reads very wintry. That was ultimately our goal.

I know that people put a lot of thought and care into their holiday greetings, so I imagined them putting these on their cards, with the stamp being a nice accent rather than trying to be the star of the show. 

The final stamp designs are quite magical and serene. Are you a fan of winter in general and snow in particular? 

Thank you! Oh, yes — I am absolutely in love with winter, so this was a dream project for me. When I was working on this I was living in a small mountain town in Pennsylvania where we would get so much snow. To me, there’s nothing cozier than the quiet calm and the magical feeling that comes with a blanket of fresh snow. I hope that people get a little bit of that feeling when they see these!