The Extraordinary COLORS of Stamps

(Above) 1898 jet black $1 stamp. THIS stamp is one of the most beautiful stamps I have ever seen.

(Above) 1869 carmine and black 90¢ stamp. Add to an already beautiful stamp the cancellation mark, and if the gods of chance are working that day—you have something special.

(Above) 1940 ultramarine 5¢ stamp.

(Above) 1914 deep claret 50¢ stamp. These color names... they aren’t mine. These are stamp collector terms for describing color. Deep claret... love it. I may try to use that term today. Oh, what about the design of this one. Wow!

(Above) 1929 orange yellow 10¢ stamp.

(Above) 1919 apple green 13¢ stamp.

(Above) 1890 carmine red 2¢ stamp. Washington behind bars.

(Above) 1887 vermillion 3¢ stamp

(Above) 1873 yellow 2¢ stamp

(Above) 1923 brown violet 12¢ stamp

(Above) 1903 light blue 24¢ stamp. LOVE this!


I THINK ANY DESIGNER WILL APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY of these early U.S. postage stamps. While design is what many many in our field talk about when it comes to stamps, the unique colors are something else to consider. There is a rich beauty to these color palettes that I haven’t seen in a while. Of course, looking at stamps magnified to this scale creates entirely new ways of seeing. After all, stamps are tiny—the size of your thumbprint. I picked these out from hundreds being auctioned—just for the color. Enjoy the scale. Enjoy the color. Enjoy this day.

These stamps were part of the 2009 Heritage Auction Galleries Inaugural Signature Stamp Auction. Heritage Auction Galleries is the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer.

An AM repost from 2/06/09.

Bottle Caps: One Inch of Design

When I was a kid back in Winston-Salem, NC, the local movie theater held Saturday morning screenings for children called “The Kiddie Show.” There they showed movies for kids—even the old black and white cliff-hanging serials. I remember seeing “The Blob” starring Steve McQueen in one of his first movies (1958). Of course, the Tom and Jerry and Roadrunner cartoons were shown as well. What's all this got to do with bottle caps? Well, usually one of the soft drink companies sponsored the event and admission was free if you brought in 10 bottle caps. So, during the week, kids in my neighborhood would rummage through the used bottle cap bucket directly under the refrigerated soft drink dispenser at the corner grocery, looking for the special cap that we needed to get into the upcoming Saturday movie. If you didn't have the right number of caps, you had to come up with a whopping 25¢ or so to get in.

Bottle caps are beautiful, if you take an extra minute to look. Here’s a few for you to peruse.

An AM repost from 11/29/08.

Sweet Playing Cards

SOME VERY COOL PLAYING CARDS designed by Felix Blommestijn found here.

Plate Tectonics: The Art of Karen Ryan

Click on any image for larger view.


Click on any image for larger view.



Click on any image for larger view.




Click on any image for larger view.


KAREN RYAN LIVES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND MAKES A VARIETY OF ART, from furniture installations made of chairs to rethinking design and its impact on society. I think she is doing some important work. When I caught a glimpse of these plates I went sort of kooky over them. So of course, here they are for you, dear readers.

First of all, let’s look at “the dinner plate.” Ever since man quit eating off of the cave floor, he devised a platform on which to put his food. This became the “plate,” as we know it. There are full plates which represent one thing (wealth, for example)—and empty plates, which can represent another (poverty). Pattern and decoration have adorned plates for centuries, so what Karen Ryan does in removing the existing meaningless glazed surface decoration is a process that renders this adornment in a new context. For the first time since these plates were made, they actually speak with a new voice. How she makes her art is the part that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she has transformed these plates into something different— powerful, word-driven objects that recontextualize the humble (and even not so humble) dinner plate into a new vehicle for art.

Learn more about this artist here.

The Process of Design

SURFING AROUND THE WORLD, LOOKING FOR THE COOL STUFF (so you don’t have to), I FOUND THE DESIGN WORK OF TAMER KOSELI, who was born in Courtepin, Switzerland in 1985. What I liked here was his display of his entire thought process—something that we might learn from.

Since 1994 Tamer has been living in Turkey. He works as a freelance designer and tries to mix East-West cultures in his works.

Koseli says “Since childhood, I was impressed by the Swiss Legacy, pictograms, posters and especially the font Helvetica.”

HIS PROJECT IS CALLED, WISHES OF 20th CENTURY and following is Tamer’s description (I have corrected some of his use of the English language for better understanding):

“Wishes happen... wishes not happen... Is there any century in human history without wishes? The students who take the occurence of wishes from (the 20th century) to days as a design problem, during the design phase of project they convert the project from surface of cube to 3 dimensional product. For these reason when I began to design the logo, poster, tee and tree I built everything on cubes. In our country people make a wish and attach a fabric on tree. We have a lot of wishes about past centuries but I think we must hope for the future... This tree came out based on idea, the visitors of our stand (Milano - Salone Satellite E37) write their hopes and post it on tree. I like that the tree turns green with hopes.”

This Horse Rocks!

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GREAT DESIGN IS TIMELESS. When I look at this early to mid-19th century child’s rocking horse, there is an elegance of simplicity that speaks to modernist design. Free of pretense or decoration, there is rhythm, balance and perfection here. I believe the sculptor Brancusi would have looked at this object with some awe.

This incredible object is available at the shop of Joshua Lowenfels in NYC.