Stamps!

Surprising Visits

The visits to the V&A Museum's 'Cold War' exhibition and the Design Museum's 'The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes' exhibition, were both surprisingly inspiring. Personally I liked the Alan Aldridge exhibition more.

The Cold War exhibition was really well organized, and I have to say, it was massive! I was very interested in seeing the product design style they used, but most of all I was very interested in graphic design from that era. My favorite thing were the posters, they were clean, direct, and the use of typography and color was very eye catching (and all done by hand!). It's amazing to see these things and try to imagine what was happening in that particular moment in time. I think the designers and artists were living in a new era, a time where creation and innovation were valued differently. These were the bases for our current designs, and I find that it is very important to really appreciate this, and their creations at the time. It was a very impressive and eye-opening experience.

I loved the Alan Aldridge exhibition, although I don't necessarily love ALL of his work, I found it completely different and actually quite inspiring. I really liked the way the exhibition was built, and the way they presented his sketches as well as his finished designs. I found most of his illustrations very interesting; the simpler ones, were actually the ones I liked the most. These illustrations were a reminder to me as a designer, that I shouldn't be afraid to use big blocks of bold color, and that sometimeswe complicate ourselves so much, and try to fit in our designs lots of elements, we deviate from our objective: delivering a clear message. 

Alan Aldridge is a very inspiring artist, and simply a very original and innovative person, what I think all designers should be. The fact that so many influential and famous artists/singer/performers wanted him to be a part of his projects, shows how distinct and well produced his work was. I think, like the artists in the Cold War exhibition, Alan Aldridge, helped define an artistic era, where a new culture was born; and he was a very big part of this, presenting himself through one of the most important aspects in that moment: music (and many others of course!). Lots of his work, not only inspired me and gave me a different perspective on how to approach my RSA project, but also in my idea for my collection project.

Also, it inspired me as a designer, to not be afraid to take risks, and do things differently, because, I think this is when you find yourself out of your comfort zone, and creating different, innovative and great designs!

A little over 100 words about my project...

Outline and Objectives

• Create awareness about alternative energies.

• Create a message that is easy to understand and memorable

• Make it easier for people to relate to alternative energies using things/objects they are familiar with

My concept will hopefully make people realize that alternative energy is being used to power everyday objects.

My target audience is very broad, from young to old people, and stamp collectors as well as general public. I want them to be more conscious about the subject, and be responsive to my message, as well as get more informed about it.

Design Elements

I have three ideas that I'm actually developing before I decide which one will be my final (which one has more impact?). 

• The first idea is the repetition of everyday elements people use, and one element would be different, it   would be an object from an alternative energy source. Beneath it will be a message presenting different facts about each energy source (one per stamp). 

• The second idea is to present again everyday objects in a continuous line design, and relate them to a source of renewable energy.

• The third idea, is to present the different kinds of sources in a graphic way that would be very appealing, using typography.

The visual style of all the designs will be very uncomplicated. All three ideas have completely different styles, ranging from colorful and simple objects to black bold lines (in the second idea) with few color. It's personality should be cheerful and positive and in a very direct tone of voice.

Schedule to meet deadlines

• Nov 10th-16th: sketch the most I can of the three ideas, to see if each one can be successfully developed into 6 stamps.

• Nov 17th-23rd: choose one of the ideas and develop it properly, start sketching the package for the stamps, and other materials I consider would be useful.(Website?)

• Nov 24th-30th: stamp design should be finished, and the other materials should be in final stages or finished as well.

• Dec 1st-4th: everything should be checked and finished. This week will hopefully be dedicated to printing and mounting the designs.

Printing Eco-Friendly Stamps, is it possible??

Today, one of the stamp printers we contacted called and was actually very nice and willing to help. She works at Walsall Security Printers. She basically said that printing stamps in eco-friendly paper is a very big issue now. They have been trying to print in different papers, like seaweed paper, but haven't had any success with them, because they have problems with the coating of the stamp.

She said they mostly use water-based inks, which are better and less harmful for the environment. Also, she was kind enough to email a Environmental Report that was made for them, unfortunately, it is confidential, so I can't print it or pass it around, but some of the most important things I will mention.

- Basically self-adhesive paper isn't very recyclable, though some labels are launching eco-friendly schemes to recycle it.

- Also, it says that in the future it may be possible to produce a self-adhesive liner that is worth recycling but a replacement for the silicone layer will need to be developed, and also the graphic design in each stamp should be revised to reduce the ink consumption in the prints.

Apparently this is a very big issue in the printing process of the stamps, but they still haven't found a way to print a excellent quality stamp thats very eco-friendly, the one thing that is reassuring, is that they are investigating and running trials on the printing process of the stamps to try to resolve the issue. It seems that they have to develop too many  things (paper, lining, coating, inks. etc) so maybe this is why its taking soo long, and we still don't have eco-friendly stamps. 

What's happening w my satmps?? (right now)

On our lecture on Friday we talked about the direction that our projects might be going in... I'm leaning more towards combining the global issue, with the local things, we use everyday.

I'm sure that many people don't realize, including me, that many of the things/appliances/cars/etc, are or CAN be powered by alternative energy resources.

I think, that energy conservation and what we can do everyday is VERY important, but so is creating an awareness in people that we need to start using the resources that we have. 

I think it's important for people to relate to alternative energy with something they have, they know, and not just showing solar panels and saying this produces energy. Yes, we know it produces energy, but what does it have to do with me? Here is where the objects we use everyday come in. I want to show that we CAN use it, and we DO use it in some cases, so people can feel much more "close" to he issue.

So anyway, this is what I'm leaning towards right now. I'm investigating different energy conservation resources, stamp designs and design concepts in general...hopefully I can carry on with this idea and create my stamps.