Label 228's - Let's Make Some Street Art!

Shira thinks it's vandalism. I think it's clever. Sticker-street art is often a bit of both. Within this dubious world is the uber-clever subgenre of Label 228 sticker art. 228 is the product code for the United States Post Office's Priority Mail Labels. It was only a matter of time before these blank address labels were repurposed as mini sticker canvases. Not only are they relatively large, high quality, mostly blank space, and available for free in the post office, the government will ship them to you free of charge.

Inspired, back in 2020 I ordered a pack and promised myself that I'd create something. The stickers arrived, and I promptly shoved them in a drawer planning to return to them shortly. Five years later, they continue to taunt me.

No longer! It's time. Let's make some art!

Inspiration Finally Strikes

For years, various ideas would start to take shape, but none came into focus. A couple of weeks ago, I found myself watching a video on choosing a graffiti street name and inspiration struck. Two names quickly came to mind: DRY and FLUX. Instead of creating a 228 masterpiece, perhaps I could scrawl one of these words on a label and finally call this project complete?

The story of FLUX will have to wait for another day, but let's dive into why I was attracted to DRY.

What's DRY?

DRY, of course, means many things. But the context that struck me was as a programming principle: Don't Repeat Yourself.

Here's an example of DRY in action. Say you've been tasked to write AddAndShow, a function that adds two numbers and shows the result. You think, no problem, and write out the following:

  AddAndShow:
  - Take in two numbers
  - Add them
  - Format the result with two decimal places
  - Print the result to the screen

Some time later, you're tasked with coding MultiplyAndShow. It's tempting to copy AddAndShow and replace 'Add' with 'Multiply.'

  MultiplyAndShow:
  - Take in two numbers
  - Multiply them
  - Format the result with two decimal places
  - Print the result to the screen

The problem is that you've duplicated code—you've repeated yourself. This isn't an issue in the short term. But, imagine you're asked to show the results to 4 decimal places? Now you need to make this change in two or perhaps more places.

A better approach is to follow the DRY principle and instead of copying the code, you rework it. Here's what that looks like:

  PerformOperationAndShow
  - Take in two numbers and an operation
  - Perform the operation
  - Format the result with two decimal places
  - Print the result to the screen

  AddAndShow
  - Call PerformOperationAndShow with two numbers and the add
  operation

  MultiplyAndShow
  - Call PerformOperationAndShow with two numbers and the multiply
  operation

Tweaking the number of decimal places can be done in a single place. Success!

For this project, DRY is more than a coding principle; it's a life principle. A call to avoid short-term solutions that lead to long-term headaches in favor of doing the thoughtful work now for a better tomorrow.

Turning DRY Into Art

As I considered how I was going to render DRY on a sticker, it occurred to me that with a bit of coding, I could add another dimension to my creation. The idea was to write a script that would fill the letters of DRY with random noise. If I ran this script 10 times, I'd end up with 10 unique stickers. In other words, I wouldn't repeat myself.

I got pretty far down this path, creating the mkdry script that outputs the following:

As I worked on the script-based solution, I started to wonder how I could accomplish the same thing in analog form. One approach that came to mind was to write out the word DRY and then roll a pair of dice. For each letter, I would get two random numbers. I could then embellish each letter with precisely this many flourishes. The result would be 6⁶, or 46,656, possible variations. That seemed plenty random for the handful of stickers I intended to create.

While further from my comfort zone, the analog solution seems like a better fit for this project. Label 228s are all about pithy elegance; relying on little more than a Sharpie and a pair of dice seems to match that spirit.

Now Comes the Hard Part

With a Sharpie and dice in hand, I created the following stickers:

I'm only lukewarm about how they came out. My inner critic has much to say about them, none of it any good. They fail as graffiti tags, they aren't as polished or amusing as 'real' sticker art, and they generally suck. He thinks I should chuck them in the trash and delete this post. But, I've come to appreciate that inner critics can't be trusted. So while the results don't blow me away, they are unique and were created with intention. So I'm, if you'll pardon the pun, sticking with them.

And so now comes the hard part: having the chutzpah to actually put the stickers in public. I'm pretty sure Shira will bail me out of jail for vandalism charges, but only after I've had a good long stretch in jail to think about my actions. That should be fun.

Wish me luck!