Since young, stamps had always fascinated me. My grandmother was an avid stamp collector and when I was little, I would spend many hours looking through her collections and never failed to be captivated by them. Under her influence, I started my very own collection too and found myself queuing up for the first day covers just as she had. The delightful times I spent meticulously collecting and fawning over my precious stamps can never be forgotten.
When my company, Pinch Design, received the invitation to work on the annual Stamp Collection of 2011, my team was thrilled. I and my two colleagues, Margaret and Yenwei, are also stamp designers; therefore, we were determined to make it the best collection yet!
Before we first started designing, my team looked through the stamp issues released during that year. We concluded that the main challenge was to be able to put all the stamps together in a cohesive package, while not compromising on bringing out the uniqueness in each of the stamp serials.
After much research and collaboration, we decided to present the Annual Stamp Collection in a style very much alike a coffee-table book. Inspired by the words from Eudora Welty, "A good snapshot stops a moment from running away" we wanted to capture the special and precious moments of Singapore in each of the stamp serials. In line with this saying, the pictures do play an important role for the overall look of this collection. Although the pictures were provided, we felt that most of them were not ideal to evoke the feelings we intended to put across. So we decided to take up the challenge and become the photographers ourselves!
We did the photography both indoors and outdoors. Going outdoors to get the right scene for the book was a challenge but we had fun. We even visited hawker centers to find the specific dishes that we would like to feature. Minute details right down to the plates and the cups used were also taken into consideration. Moreover, the photographs had to be taken directly under the sun to ensure matrimony of shadows and light. Nonetheless, the absolute best part was savoring the dishes after the photos were taken!
To complement the nature-based photos, special craft boards were chosen for the slipcase to give a natural feel while the rainbow silver foil gives it a classy twist and a touch of the present. A simple circular die-cut hole peeps into the hard cover of the book, presented in an elegant black. Graphics on the covers were also extracted from the various incorporated stamps series.
I would like to thank all the photographers that had allowed us to publish their beautiful pictures in the book, and also my team, Margaret, YenWei and WenBin who had put in great effort in making the annual collection 2011 a splendid book.
This year, we are honoured once again to be awarded the job for the designing of the annual collection 2012. With the experience from last year, we hope to bring out a whole new outlook to this latest year book.
I take pride in this project and reciprocate the joy of stamp collecting to all other avid collectors out there, just like I did in my childhood.
