Create a celebratory stamp design that can be used for many occasions but that also celebrates, emphasizes, or depicts the environment. You will be designing a stamp that would be printed as a sheet (or pane) of 20 stamps. This gives you the opportunity to design not just one stamp, but a few to populate the sheet of 20. You can view examples from the USPS here. These stamps, and these illustrate the pane concept well. The most critical issue about stamp design is that the finished piece will be seen at stamp size.
Target Audience: People who send cards and notes to loved ones of all ages.
Demographics/Psychographics: Statistically, most people who buy cards are women.
Product Description: Small, horizontal or vertical. Stamp will be seen repeated on a small sheetlet of 20 stamps when purchased. On an envelope, the stamp will usually be seen by itself. Show both scenarios.
Key Messages: Celebrate, Happy Birthday, Congratulations, etc. (Ideally, the stamp will be relevant to multiple occasions.); 42 USA
Call to Action: Buy me! This stamp would add a nice touch to the outside of your envelope.
Objections to Overcome: Postage stamps must appeal to the mass market, nationwide.While still being innovative, we have to be careful to not be elitists and speak only to designers.Stamps that appeal to the west or east coast and leave out the rest of the country can be expensive to shred when they do not sell.
Creative Specifications
Creative Tone: Open
Existing Graphics/Brand Attributes: Show stamp designs with serrated edges.Without it, the idea of a stamp is lost.
Required Text: Celebrate, 42 USA
Inks: Four-color process/CMYK.
Other: Stamp template can be downloaded at www.adcmw.org/realshow.
This project, like the Byrd House Market Poster is from the Art Director’s Club of Metropolitan Washington’s Real Show.
Project Schedule:
Monday, February 23 – Research (see Design Journal Entry #6) and 50 thumbnails due
Wednesday, February 25 – 5 hand OR digital compositions due of 5 different designs/concepts
Monday, March 2 – workday
Wednesday, March 4 – 1 digital final stamp design
Monday, March 23 – Final Stamp Designs Due, mounted on foam core
Project Grading: 30 points possible
Process Work (12 pts)
thumbnails: 4 pts possible
hand comps: 4 pts possible
digital comps: 4 pts possible
Final Design (18 pts)
18–16 Excellent; the solution responds to the design brief with a creative, innovative solution; craft is impeccable
15.5–13 pts. Good; the solution mostly responds to and meets the design brief with a satisfactory solution to the problems; craft is good
12.5–11 pts. Average; the solution solves the design problem with predicable elements or ideas; craft has some problems
10.5–9 pts. Below average; the solution is weak and does not address the design brief; craft is poor
8.5 pts and below Work not deserving of credit that fails to respond to the design brief; poor craft
