Roger’s Stamp step by step

An Post have released their 2010 greetings booklet featuring 2 stamps designed and illustrated by IGI member Roger O’Reilly. (For you philatelists out there, first day covers are now available from An Post’s website.) Roger has put together a Step-by step of the process involved in producing the stamps, first day cover envelope and accompanying cards and stickers…

I was first asked to submit some ideas exploring different directions for greetings stamps. The stamps are regarded as not being occasion-specific, but as Valentines day is the second biggest post date after Christmas, it’s bound to appear.

I decided to take two approaches. The first was a sketch like direction, much like the Kilkenny 400 stamps I had produced for An Post last summer and the second was a little more whimsical (and an opportunity to get my kids featured on stamps if I worked it right!) The advisory committee as it happened were much more enthusiastic about the latter approach.

Next I had to work out what general occasions I would feature. Romance, celebration, good to talk, the delight in receiving unexpected correspondence that isn’t a bill. An post quickly decided that they didn’t want branding in the picture, but they loved the boy in the rocket and wanted me to rework the Valentines image. This went through a few processes before it was agreed that “space” should be the theme at which point the boy became a girl and the girl a boy.

For the first day cover an image was needed for the envelope to tie in with the theme. It was one of those rare occasions where the first idea I had seemed to exactly what everyone was looking for. The post floating to your door with a starry sky background and the rocket floating by. All that had to be done now was to work through the stickers and card images. I had the idea of the stickers being like the slogans on those old charm sweets you used to get, ignoring the fact that of course any message would have to be in Irish as well as English. A bit more tweaking and the job was done. Son and eldest daughter on the stamps, younger daughter on the accompanying card. Mission accomplished!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 7:03 am and is filed under IGI News, Illustration, Step-by-steps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.