This summer, flocks of colorful frigatebirds, spoonbills, and Red Knots will be flying all over the United States鈥攊n the form of a new series of postcard stamps, 鈥,鈥 illustrated by minimalist designer Tyler Lang.
Lang says he鈥檚 loved seabirds since college, when he worked at a shorebird sanctuary. By reducing the birds to their most essential shapes and lines, he says he hopes to highlight their simple beauty: 鈥淵ou want to see how many things you can take away, without losing the personality and importance of what that thing is.鈥 By doing so, Lang hopes, he can get his viewers invested in the birds鈥 futures.
Lang and his wife, Elsa, have designed logos for Nike and the New York Times, but stamps were a new frontier. He was surprised but thrilled to be contacted by USPS. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty crazy thing to get an e-mail for,鈥 he says, laughing. 鈥淭hey saw the work that we had done for , and a few other nature-centric illustrations, and wanted to see if we could take a crack at a few coastal birds.鈥
The Postal Service sent Lang a long list of birds, and asked him to pick four to illustrate. Lang recognized some of the names鈥攈e had seen Roseate Spoonbills on trips to Florida. Others were less familiar: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how I hadn鈥檛 met the King Eider before, but it鈥檚 one of the most amazing, beautiful birds I鈥檝e ever seen . . . it almost already looks like it鈥檚 illustrated and painted.鈥
Lang says he knew he had to include the eider鈥攊llustrating unusual, underappreciated animals is his passion鈥攁nd added that he鈥檇 love to do a set of stamps on the 鈥渋nvisible鈥 animals that already live in Americans鈥 backyards. 鈥淧eople already know what a bison looks like,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 like the idea of giving a shine to a grasshopper species that we鈥檝e never taken the time to see up close.鈥
The stamps come at a crucial time for water birds: Sea level rise may soon threaten nests, and poor water management is making the Roseate Spoonbill鈥檚 future decidedly less rosy. Calling broader attention to the loveliness of these birds is more important now than ever.
You can buy your own set of Coastal Birds postcard stamps .
Check out Lang's beak project, which he completed for 探花精选 in 2011. Read the related feature on how birds' beaks suit their dietary habits (and other things) here.