Going Postal
Despite enjoying the look of stamps, I’ve avoided becoming a philatelist for the same reason I’ve avoided getting too into record collecting: I really do not need a reason to be buying more stuff, especially old stuff. However, I will reluctantly admit that seeing Ashley Shiyan Zhu’s stamp collection, featured here today, made me heavily reconsider that perspective.
Ashley, a designer and student of mine at RISD, first divulged her postal leanings to me in February after I shared a book of stamps I found at the Chelsea Flea on my Instagram. But it wasn’t until last week, in response to a prompt for my Experimental Branding class to bring in one old and one new source of inspiration, that I actually got a chance to see her collection—an archive of some 2,000 odd stamps across 5+ books, ongoing since high school when she purchased a cache of stamps from a former ambassador who had collected them during his travels.
The other students’ reaction to looking at Ashley’s collection in a class about branding was that stamps are basically mini-brands (when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail). I agree, of course. But what I like about stamps and other small-scale ephemera like matchbooks is that you can see them as a mini version of just about any other kind of design: posters, social media avatars, book covers, LP artwork, etc. There’s a reason that so many illustrators still draw thumbnails to get work approved; as Irma Boom knows best, if it works small, it’ll work large.
While I was enthralled by all of Ashley’s stamps, what caught my eye most were those affixed to “First Day of Issue” envelopes. These envelopes are designed and released alongside a new stamp featuring artwork tied to its subject. On the stamp’s launch day, collectors can buy the new stamp, stick it on the associated envelope, and have it immediately cancelled at the post office with a special First-Day postmark (often designed to match the stamp’s theme) which voids it for use. The result is a dated record of the stamp’s release—a sort of quasi-promotional proof-of-purchase for ephemera hounds.
I love seeing how different countries have interpreted the format over the last six decades, and, as evidenced by the most recent item in Ashley’s collection—a 2023 stamp from Switzerland—knowing that the format is still ongoing.
In keeping with the theme, this issue’s featured archive is La Patria, a site cataloging Uruguayan design that includes quite a nice selection of stamps from the country.
I have essays published in two new books: Identity is Variable, about the subversive origins of sans serifs, and Search Work, where I share a visual history of the job recruitment ad. I love books!
omg these are amazing
Stamps are among my sometimes collectibles but the movie Charade always re-piques my interest in them.