STAMPS

My imagination soared with thoughts of travel and the timeless allure of sending letters and postcards from overseas. Daydreaming of travel and sunshine, I was reminiscing on a trip to Greece I took a few years ago, and decided to pick a Greek theme for my stamp collection. I researched Greek stamps and looked back on some old photos to begin my design process.

For the style of the stamps I wanted to play with hand drawn sketches. I am drawn to the imperfect, loose drawing effect and thought it would work well with the travel theme. I made a list of all the symbols I thought of when thinking of Greece and hand sketched, water colored, and then brought the images into Illustrator for tracing, and refining.

Originally I wanted to use all the colors of Greece that come to mind - blues from the ocean and tops of the architecture, cream whites from the buildings, yellow from the sun, and bright vivid purples from the flowers that grow wild and hang down upon the cafes. However, upon receiving constructive feedback on my initial drafts, I recognized the need to streamline my color palette for cohesiveness. I chose to focus on the first color that I think of when I think about Greece, which is blue. By using just two hues of blue for the final stamps, it captured the essence of Greece and the Aegean Sea.   

• Hand Sketch

• Illustrator

• Photoshop