About This Stamp
Low and slow: that’s the lowrider car. When moving, it appears to glide over the road surface, only to levitate suddenly and bounce up and down. These stamps celebrate the lowrider culture rooted in 1940s-era working-class Mexican American/Chicano communities of the American Southwest — a culture of artistically and mechanically customized cars now honored at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and emulated by lowrider clubs in other countries.
Eager to show different lowrider styles, vintages, and colors on these stamps, USPS Art Director Antonio Alcalá found that photography would best capture the essence of lowrider culture. “Photography helps honor the hard work that goes into the creation of each car,” he explains. “Using illustrations would possibly be more about the artist’s imagination than about actual lowriders.”
These stamps feature photographs by Philip Gordon of Let the Good Times Roll/Soy Como Soy, a blue 1946 Chevrolet Fleetline; and Pocket Change, a green 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme; and photographs by Humberto “Beto” Mendoza of Eight Figures, a blue 1958 Chevrolet Impala; The Golden Rose, an orange 1964 Chevrolet Impala; and El Rey, a red 1963 Chevrolet Impala.
At its most spectacular, a lowrider car might boast a colorful paint job and a luxurious interior featuring, for example, crushed velvet upholstery and a seven-inch welded-chain steering wheel. To show the cars in as much detail as possible, Alcalá made these stamps one-third wider than the usual commemorative size. Other design elements pay further tribute to lowrider culture: The Gothic-style typography suggests the shiny chrome lettering found on many cars to show their affiliation with a particular club. Danny Alvarado’s custom pinstriping in the corner of each stamp and on the selvage evokes the detailed decoration on the most celebrated lowriders.
“Lowrider cars represent a great deal of pride on the parts of the owners, the painters, and detailers, and the car clubs,” Alcalá says, acknowledging the responsibility he felt to do justice to a culture that came into its own in the 1970s — and is still going strong.
Stamp Designer, Stamp Art Director
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.
