FMP - UK First Stamps Submission Boards

UK First Postage Stamps

OUGD 303Final Major Project

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Ollie SawardGraphic Design

BRIEF

Originally a competition brief for the RSA and Royal Mail that asked ‘Celebrate the idea of ‘UK firsts’ and create a series of stamps that inspire the nation whilst instilling national pride. The stamps must be in keeping with the Royal Mail’s current range whilst operating independently as a series.’

On the following boards the first design ‘Splitting the Atom’ was entered to the competition but having designed and developed many series’ prior to entering the competition they have all been extended to complete series’ with accompanying packaging.

The brief was used as an opportunity to explore the designs relationship with scale and the way in which users can interacted with them.

AUDIENCE

Stamp collectors, the general public, utilitarian nature allows for anybody to be the potential audience.

TONE

Desirable, illustrative, collectable, genuine.



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SPLITTING THE ATOM

Series of stamps based on Ernest Walton & John Cockroft’s successful splitting of the atom in 1932.They were the first people to split the atom in a completely controlled manner. In doing so they also became the first people to verify Einstein’s law: E=mc2.

The series is designed to commemorate their achievement and its impact on the scientific community through the use of the familiar atomic structure diagram. The fine patterns in the background of the series are reference to ionic bonds between atoms, atoms joined together to form a molecule and the grid found in scientific notebooks. These patterns are designed to act like security lines on currency and would be rotogravure printed to ensure they would be hard to forge.

Through the use of the stamps the user would be forced to split the atom.



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THEORY OF EVOLUTION

Linear postage stamp series designed to celebrate Charles Darwin’s great insight when answering the eternal question’ Where did we come from?’

The design itself is a reworking of the famous Evolution of Man diagram. Here it demonstrates the stages of evolution using silhouettes of the species, depicting the evolution of Ape to Queen - however I’m not sure Her Majesty would approve of this series. The series is an exercise in simplicity and colour – two crucial factors when designing at small scale. It is designed to the change incolour directs the viewer in the correct order of the series.



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COLOUR BLIND DIAGNOSIS

Series designed to inform of the UK first - in 1897 English Chemist John Dalton was the first person to accurately diagnose colour blindness. Because of his discovery the term Daltonism was used to describe the condition although it is now referred to as deuteranopia.

To commemorate Dalton’s breakthrough the later designed Ishihara colour test has been employed to represent the discovery.

Each stamp has been correctly colour mixed to ensure that they themselves work as mini Ishihara tests.



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MARSHALL AMPLIFIERS

A series of postage stamps that celebrate the fact that Marshall Amplifiers were the first amplifier company to introduce a certain type of valve in their amps, the higher-gain ECC83 valves running throughout the preamp, the introduction of which effectively creating ‘loud’ guitar amps of today.

The series is designed to be as graphic in its illustration as possible for instant recognition at a smaller scale. The series aims to celebrate Jim Marshall’s legacy not only on rock and roll but popular culture.



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INVENTION OF MECCANO

The invention of Meccano by Frank Hornby in 1901 was the worlds first engineering / mechanics based toy. A forerunner to Lego, it was the first toy that enabled children the world over to explore their imagination whilst learning the fundamentals of engineering and physics.

On this series the invention is celebrated by a series of abstract images created using Meccano pieces, designed to represent a child’s imagination and the endless possibilities of creation with Meccano.



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DISCOVERY OF PENICILLIN

This set of postage stamps aims to commemorate Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin in 1928. It is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents - natural substances that are released by bacteria into the their environment, as a means of inhibiting other organisms - it is chemical warfare on a microscopic scale.

The discovery is represented here by a vector illustration of the birds eye view of mould growing in a Petri dish. Again it is simplified illustration to accurately work on the small scale of a postage stamp.



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PENNY BLACK REDESIGN

This is a contemporary redesign the original 1840 Penny Black, was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system.

The redesign is aimed to highlight Sir Rowland Hill’s successful introduction of the Penny Black and it countless international incarnations ever since.

The design has be reduce down to is purest form – only including the necessary information - the head and the value, with black obviously referencing the original postage stamp.



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LONDON UNDERGROUND

This set of postage stamps is designed to raise awareness of the fact that the London Underground was the worlds first underground railway.

The series carries the twelve colour coordinated lines of the tube system in pairs incorporating a circle to represent a station. The design is an attempt to reduce the recognizable map down to is simplest form due to the scale of postage stamps whilst maintaining its instantly recognizable form through shape and colour.

Documents

FMP - UK First Stamps Submission Boards