Graffiti stickers on USPS labels
Before the brands, the photos and the screens, I was a graffiti sticker artist. Growing up in Philadelphia, I hand-drew characters on blank USPS Priority Mail labels and put them up around Philly. These are the stickers, and the Derp character, that started everything.
[ The stickers ]
[ The story ]
From notebooks to slaps.
It started in high school, drawing graffiti names in notebooks for classmates. My name back then was Fawx. Drawing turned into art, and art turned into stickers.
Stickers are graffiti you can carry in your pocket. I'd sit with a stack of blank USPS Priority Mail Label 228s and markers, draw a character on each one, and put them up all over Philadelphia, wherever I went. No two were the same.
Derp became the one I kept coming back to: a long, droopy head, bug eyes and something always dripping. He melted, smoked, got skinned and grew tentacles, but you always knew it was him.
Years later I brought him into Procreate. Some of the digital pieces are drawn right on top of a scan of the original label, so the marker feel and the sticker shape stay part of the art.
[ Label to logo ]
Same hand, bigger walls.
Everything I do now goes back to those labels. Drawing a character small enough for a sticker teaches you to keep shapes bold, outlines thick and ideas instantly readable. That's the same thinking behind a good logo.
The sticker years led to my two graffiti typefaces, Throwie and Fat Finger, to the stickers I've designed for brands like Triple Eight Auto and Cafe Vu, and to the characters in my logo design work.
[ Custom stickers ]
Want stickers like these?
[ FAQ ]
Good questions
What is a Label 228 sticker?
Label 228 is the blank USPS Priority Mail shipping label. Graffiti writers have drawn on them for decades because they're sticky, tough and the perfect size for a quick piece, so 'Label 228' and 'slaps' became sticker culture shorthand.
Who made these stickers?
Me, Paul Vu. Before Vucifer, and before Killronin, my graffiti name was Fawx. I'm a Philadelphia designer, and I drew these characters by hand on labels and put them up around Philly. More of the story is on my about page.
Who is Derp?
Derp is the character I kept coming back to: a long, droopy head, bug eyes and something always dripping. He melts, smokes, gets skinned and grows tentacles, but you always know it's him.
Do you still draw stickers?
Yes. The early pieces were drawn by hand on the labels. Later I started redrawing the characters in Procreate, sometimes right on top of a scan of the label, so the hand-drawn feel carries into the digital versions.
Can you design stickers for my brand, crew or band?
Yes. I design sticker sets, die-cuts and slap-style stickers for brands, shops, artists and crews, plus the lettering and characters on them. See custom lettering and merch design, or start a project.
From the Design Dept.