Broadly, “neat” means I either loved the stamp at first sight, or I was drawn into it for some reason and then discovered a less than in-your-face neatness.
A great visual design, ranging from the appropriateness of the design concept and choice of visual representation, to the layout and use of colors, for example. Their neatness is quite obvious. some stamps are real works of art; some look like mini-posters; But there are stamps which I found to be very neat because of the designer’s clever use of graphic elements and typography.
Other stamps are neat because they are very playful, heartfelt, or humble, but also somber, dark, or dramatic, and this can be quite obvious or become clearer the more you look at the stamp.
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).
and I wanted to share what I found about them with you.
So who is this site for? I think for stamp lovers in general, but I think there will be some delicious morsels for (other) designers, as well as people interested in History, Communication, Social Sciences, Visual Analysis, Semiotics…
Fact is, stamps were often mass produced and unremarkable (designed to be used), or overly colorful, often not well printed, with “easy” subjects (felines, dogs, butterflies) sometimes even tacky – and designed to increase some small country’s GDP (some of these countries would issue stamps . Still, many stamps were designed sincerely to communicate something quite powerful internally or externally. There are several academic papers on stamps and national identity, social change, propaganda. And when stamps did (do?) this, we have to marvel at how much needs to be achieved with such economy of space.
I created this site to share some of the neat stamps I found.
Enjoy!
