(Crossposted from my site.)

DeviantART stamps are a type of Internet graphic popularized on (you guessed it) DeviantART. These stamps are small pixel art creations which are traditionally 99x56 pixels in size, and are primarily used to present a quote or a message in text. However, stamps also commonly use emotes, photos, pixel art and animation. Although stamps are used for a wide variety of things, stamps are arguably most commonly used to share opinions on a wide variety of topics, including (but not limited to) fandoms, food, ships, music, politics, or whose side you're on for the internet slapfight of the week.

In the modern day, DeviantART stamps are widely regarded as a relic of the Internet past. According to Google Trends, the term "DeviantART stamps" first began being searched November of 2010, it reached its peak popularity August of 2011, and continued being extremely popular until around October of 2013, where it began to fall off, then eventually petering off into nothing around September of 2020. There has been a noticeable spike of interest in them starting around June of 2022, which I contribute to the rise of the concept of 'the old web', webcore, nostalgiaposting, and similar concepts. But, for the sake of discussion, the time when DeviantART stamps were "in" as a current thing was around 2011-2013.

But why is the DeviantART stamp? Who was the originator of the DeviantART stamp, how did they become so popular? This question was posed on a forum I frequent, and I was unable to find any existing write-ups, so I sought to answer it myself.

The oldest currently-available result for "DeviantART stamp" I could find in my research was this post (archive), by DeviantART user zilla774, also known as Ian Field-Richards. Ian, as-of my time writing this, lists himself as someone who works on dA's UX (or user experience). I find this interesting because, first of all, this means that one of the earliest proponents of the stamp, to my knowledge, is now a DeviantART staff member, and has been (according to the Internet Archive) since at least 2018, though he then listed himself as being dA's user interface director. I am unsure if he was a staff member at the time he posted this, and he seems to be absolutely allergic to publicly stating when, exactly, he started working for dA, however, I am inclined to believe he was a staff member at the time, because of the involvement of other staff members in this story. Second of all, this does, for all intents and purposes, seem to be the template for the popular style of stamps. Lastly, this post was made 2006, quite a few years before stamps would take off.

The post is titled, "Stamp Template", and the description reads, "For use in creating all the little gif stamps you see around dA. This is the basis for all the stamp designs I have created recently. The PSD contains layers for all the major parts including example text. Based on TheRyanFords stamp idea."

So, "for use in creating all the little gif stamps you see around dA" clearly implies that they were already established, and that there is some sort of post before this about stamps that I was missing. However, he names another user as the originator of the idea.

TheRyanFord, also known as just Ryan Ford, is the former creative director and head of director for DeviantART and, thankfully, unlike Ian, he is not allergic to naming dates, stating he worked there from "~2000 to 2012". This puts him snugly in the position of staff at the time of "Stamp Template" being posted.

(Also in his DeviantART account's description is, "... I still want the world to have a digital place where everyone can share their creative spirit, grow their artistic talents, and expand their worlds...well, this website used to be that place but maybe it isn't so much anymore." Fucking savage.)

However, at this point, the trail runs cold. Ryan did make a few stamps of his own, but they were all from September to December of 2009, so well after Ian's post. I could not find any earlier mentions of stamps on his profile, either.

So, of course, I did the only rational thing, and personally emailed Ryan Ford, an award-winning designer, in hopes he would answer this incredibly niche question. I wrote him the following:

"Hello, Mr. Ford,

I know that you're likely very busy, so I appreciate your time. I am an internet historian, of sorts. It is important to me (and many others) that trends online are documented, so they are not lost to time. I was specifically looking into the history of DeviantArt stamps. The oldest result that I could find for "DeviantArt stamp" was this: https://www.deviantart.com/zilla774/art/Stamp-Template-29379001 In the description, it mentions you as the originator of the "stamp idea". However, I was unable to find any post you made mentioning this idea (although I see you made some yourself in 2009).

My questions, if you would be so kind to answer them, are: did you coin the idea of a DeviantArt stamp, or was it already established by the time this post came around, as implied by the phrase, "For use in creating all the little gif stamps you see around dA" in the attached post? If it was you, where did you suggest the idea initially? If it wasn't you, do you know who was? Really, any information that you can remember about how the stamp trend began and how it rose to popularity would be fantastic. I realize it's been well over a decade since the events in question (how time flies!), so even vague information on this topic is appreciated.

The timeline of DeviantArt stamps is not currently documented online that I can see, so I hope you can help me remedy that, as a valuable first-hand account. Thank you very much!

Azure"

And, miraculously, within a few days, Ryan got back to me with the following email (archives are my own additions):

"Hi Azure,

Thanks for your email.

Yes I am the originator of the “DeviantArt Stamp.”

I originated it explicitly for promotion of the “DeviantArt Summit” which was held in Los Angeles in Jun of 2005.

I couldn’t exactly remember the exact dates so here’s a copy-paste description I came across:

On June 17 and 18, 2005, DeviantArt held their first convention, the deviantART Summit, at the Palladium in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The summit consisted of several exhibitions by numerous artists, including artscene groups old and new at about 200 different booths. Giant projection screens displayed artwork as it was being submitted live to DeviantArt, which was receiving 50,000 new images daily at the time.

The Summit was a massive project at the time, for all of us who were mostly volunteers or underpaid part-timers all devoted to what we felt was a worthy cause. I was tasked with building a promotional package, and was simultaneously going to college to study design. On top of things like news articles, journal skins, and print promotional pieces, I also came up with this idea of the Stamp as a pseudo bumper sticker to put on your journal or in comments, to indicate something like “I’m heading to the DeviantArt Summit.”

The reason for the stamp was due to its relationship with the original place the Summit was to be held: an airplane hanger in LA. Angelo (the CEO) had this vision of a very specific hanger to be utilized, where all the booths and stations would go, etc. It seemed like a sure thing. So we designed our promotional package around the idea of airplanes, and so the stamp was an “air mail” reference. Obviously, as history shows, the airplane hanger idea fell through and the event was migrated to the Hollywood Palladium.

Here are a couple links to Summit info:

• Original blog post by Angelo (spyed): https://www.deviantart.com/spyed/journal/The-2005-deviantART-Summit-214145117 (archive)
• A video recorded by Scott (Jark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIZKO15sliw (archive)

The stamp was originally shared out, not by me, but I believe by an official account (maybe it was the deviantart account, maybe it was the temporary summit account). This is why it’s not attached to my profile.

It grew in prominence and popularity because it was so much like a bumper-sticker, so it was quickly co-opted for other purposes as a way of advertising one’s opinion about a topic, and it was frequently attached to comment signatures and journals to keep the user’s message alive.

Hope that helps!

Ryan Ford"

This explains both why Ian referred to another DeviantART stamp older to this post – it was attached to an official profile for an event, which was deleted after it concluded. (I did check the official dA account, and did not find anything, thus leading me to believe that this stamp was attached to the Summit account.) This means that we officially have a piece of DeviantART stamp lost media on our hands!! Someone contact the Lost Media Wiki!

In all seriousness: if you have any information or leads with regards to the original DeviantART stamp posted to the official Summit account, or what triggered stamps' sudden rise in popularity in 2010-2011, please contact me here on Sheezy, or via the email azure.webmaster@proton.me.