Final Stamp Designs

This is my final collection of stamps depicting the 12 Days of Christmas. I really enjoyed the simplicity and quick nature of this brief and look forward to more like it. Its a great creative exercise that keeps my brain quick, I think sometimes spending a week or even two can really take the pace out of my creative process and getting to grips with a brief like this in one day is a great way to keep things fresh.

Stamp Development

The above screen shots show the developments of one of my stamp designs and the origins of a couple of elements used frequently throughout most of the stamp designs. My entire design was based on the editing and amalgamation of two typefaces to form the basis of the collection with additions added in my own hand depending on the subject matter (verse of song).

The two typefaces were Porcelain (used for the numbers) and VTKS Deja Vu (elements used as additions). These are two typefaces I keep in my typeface collection and have always liked creating my own custom typeface as part of a design, I felt that this concept was an ideal situation to use this process and these typefaces.

I really wanted to create a contemporary collection of stamp designs with this brief and by realising this concept I feel I have achieved that. As part of the brief we were to research stamp design parameters in the UK which I was lucky enough to find in a live brief doing the rounds at the moment in the form of the RSA Student Awards Brief to 'inspire the nation with fashion classics and UK 'Firsts' in the form of Postage Stamps. This brief includes the national postage stamp design parameters and templates for all variations of stamp design.

(http://www.thersa.org/projects/design/student-design-awards/briefs/briefs/postage-stamps).

If I was to spend a little more time on this brief (which I will as part of my portfolio development in the next couple of months) I will pay more attention to colour development, experimenting with different colour combinations and test the designs in different sized stamps rather than the 35mm x 35mm I have used here. But for the time that was spent on this brief I am really happy with the outcomes and look forward to developing them a little more in the future.

12 Days Of Christmas In Stamps Research and Ideas

My ideas for the one day brief were decided in about 10 minutes as this was a very quick brief. I really wanted to create a collection of stamps as was the brief but go above that and create a celebreation and representation of the 12 days of Christmas. I wanted to step away from the traditional imagery that I found whilst doing some secondary research and take the collection in a more contemporary and minimalist direction.

Festive Stamps To get You In The Mood......

This a few images I collected as part of a very quick but very fun festive one day brief to round of the term. The brief was to design a set of festive stamps and a stamp book, the stamps need not have been for Christmas but for any festival but I decided to go for Christmas as well lets face it ITS CHRISTMAS!

4th Outcome Idea and Development

The last and final outcome for the 5-a-day project was determined a lot earlier in the project as I included the idea on the cover design whilst developing the text. The realisation of this idea had to wait until all my print work was complete. The final outcome comes in the form of a 'free gift' referenced on the cover design. A five a day chart is a tool well respected to help children learn and engage with their diet and I thought it would be a likely addition to this type of magazine issue. The construction was based on a template I found online on a parenting website, which proved to be very helpful. The materials I chose where based upon both the style and caliber of magazine and organic colours to help represent what is being decided by using it. I really enjoyed this aspect of the project in particular as it gave me a chance to experiment and use different materials. I do like getting crafty!

Advertisement DPS Development

These screen shots show the development of the second DPS I have been asked to produce as part of the 5-a-day brief I am working on at the moment. The really hard part of this particular part of my final outcomes was the photography of the models I produced explained in an earlier post, this part of the development was a lot more straight forward as I already knew what grid structure I was going to use as dictated by my research, personal judgement and the previous DPS. Moulding this grid structure into a modular setting was the only real variation and this I achieved by first laying out placement around the imagery to ensure the best placement of the text. I then did a couple of colour variations for the text before deciding on yellow to both uphold the concept of using primary colours but more practically to maximise legibility against the pea green and pale blue background.