Instagram VOTE sticker created by Fabiola Lara, a Philadelphia artist | Tech Reddy

When Selena Gomez, Joe Biden, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez added a balloon letter and a “POTI” sticker to their Instagram stories on Sunday, they, along with many social media users, shared the work by Philadelphia artist Fabiola Lara. .

Lara has been a freelance designer since 2015, and posting her work on Instagram seems to have caught the company’s attention. Instagram contacted him in March, asking him to design digital ads for the election season.

He created three other additions for Instagram with a voting theme: a rainbow design that says, “Register to Vote;” a heart with, “I voted,” on it; and a woman in a blue bucket hat with the words, “I registered to vote.” All four have been available on Instagram since May and users can choose between English or Spanish versions. The Instagram symbol for things related to voting – a red, white and blue ballot box – is also his.

“As an artist you always want to get your work out there,” said Lara, 30, “so to work with a brand that has such influence on Instagram is a huge milestone for me. .”

The official Instagram post promoting Lara’s efforts says the stickers, “help Americans express pride – in English or Spanish – when voting in midterm elections.”

It took about two months to create the design, he said, starting with hand-drawn sketches on an iPad, which he then put to paper.

“The black outlines on all the stickers are hand-drawn and then digitally colored to give it a personal feel,” he says.

The idea, Lara says, is to create something that suits her style, “like a playful and easy look.”

Lara has been a freelance illustrator and designer since 2015, and her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, a United Nations human rights project, and Teen Vogue. His works can vary from the personal, with anecdotes drawn from his own experiences, to the light and funny. He hosts a podcast, Draws in Spanish, featuring conversations with Hispanic artists.

Lara grew up in Florida, but settled in Philadelphia in 2020. She came to the United States from Chile when she was seven months old, and she voted in her first election as an American citizen in mid 2018.

He has dealt with political issues in his work in the past, but, “this one is very nonsensical.”

“I love creating work that brings joy and color into everyday life,” Lara said.