Neat Stamps contains a number of posts (I call them stories) about stamps from my collection. I always liked stamps, but a few years ago, as a designer, I started buying stamps more seriously, and now own quite a few thousands.
Almost all stamp collectors specialize on countries, periods or themes (flowers or animals is common), and advanced collectors may specialize on rare and valuable stamps. Not me.
Almost all the stamps I bought – mainly from large online dealers – just had to be Neat, and they could be any period, country or subject (as long as not too expensive). That meant dozens of hours looking at online stamp catalogs – at images that sometimes were less than ideal – country by country, decade by decade, stamp by stamp. There are still countries that are under-represented in my collection. It takes time.
After receiving the stamps, I would always create high resolution, reasonably color-accurate digital copies11. That was very critical for being able to analyze them as well as display good images in the stories.
By neat, I mean the stamps were interesting to me as a designer. I am referring to design in a broad sense, not just visual, but also what the stamps choose to represent, how they did it, and why. That means considering the historical, social and political context as well.
Stamp neatness can be very obvious, but it can also be very subtle, and reveal itself after some research – which includes visual inspection of large digital copies, literature research, and so on.
Neatness can result from a great design concept, choice of visual representation style, layout and use of colors, graphic elements and typography. Some neat stamps can easily be called striking, beautiful or elegant.
Some stamps are very showy – but others are modest, quiet, humble.
Some are lighthearted or playful , others have a somber, dark, dramatic, or even downright disturbing tone.
Stamps can be neat because they show surprising subjects, themes, metaphors, connections, intentions. Some have complex narratives; some can even have hidden messages and surprising details (which is why stamp collectors are often shown holding a magnifier).
All of this is to be done by neat stamps in the most severely limited amount of space possible. It is really hard to design and communicate so well when all you have is a few square centimeters. And whether it works well or not, stamps might often be reproduced in the tens of millions – or at least they used to. And for a long time, stamps would be a big part of what governments communicated to citizens, and countries communicated to other countries.
The main site page shows all stories in chronological fashion, but they were also grouped into 5 major categories (at top). I also added a variety of tags for a variety of stamp attributes (Country, Period, Designer, and much more) that can be browsed in ALL TAGS. The page SITES & REFERENCES lists my favorite vendors and links to some useful resources.
So please enjoy my neat stamp stories and add your comments.