This contribution reviews recent findings on nonlithographic approaches for topographical structuring of polymeric surfaces and application of the resulting surfaces for creating hierarchical structures. External mechanical fields are used to induce a so-called buckling instability, which causes the formation of wrinkles with well-defined wavelength. We introduce the theoretical foundations of the phenomenon. The universality of the principle and the range of wavelengths between fractions of a micrometer and hundreds of microns that can be achieved are discussed. In the following we focus on the application of these surfaces as templates for the deposition of colloidal particles such as artificial particles (polystyrene beads, gold-nanoparticles or polymeric core-shell particles) and bionanoparticles (tobacco mosaic virus). We demonstrate how patterns can be transferred from the supporting wrinkled surfaces onto a broad variety of flat surfaces like glass or silicon wafers by stamping, where the complex colloidal patterns are accessible for studying their optical, electronic or other physical properties.