Principles of stamp design

-Photographs from World War II.

During the period of 1945, the Second World War was over, and the US military launched a fierce island war with the Japanese in the Pacific islands. On February 23 of that year, the US Marine Corps attacked Iojima and fought fiercely with the Japanese troops guarding the island, causing heavy casualties on both sides. After more than 4,000 people were killed, the US military finally conquered Iojima and planted the banner of victory in Buzhe Mountain, the commanding height of the island. Joe rosenthal, an American army photographer, recorded this exciting historical moment with his camera. Soon after, in order to publicize the victory of the Allied Forces, the U.S. government advertised the war bonds issued in China, and planned to select a masterpiece from the battlefield photos that could reflect the heroism and winning belief of the U.S. military. This photo taken by joe rosenthal was finally selected. On July 1945, 1 1, to celebrate the victory of World War II, the United States issued a stamp (figure 1) reflecting the achievements of the US Marine Corps in World War II, and the stamp pattern adopted this photo. After the war, the US government built the Marine Corps Monument in Arlington National Cemetery, and the main sculpture of the Monument is also based on this photo. Since then, this photo has become famous and widely circulated all over the world. 1995 To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Second World War, many countries issued commemorative stamps, and many of them adopted this photo.

Because of the popularity of this photo, some countries adopt "takenism" when designing stamps, as long as they encounter themes such as defeating the invaders and recovering lost land. Using the pattern of this photo, they drew several soldiers planting national flags on the ground, and some even had the same standing posture and posture. Kuwait and Greece also issued stamps with similar pictures.

Mr. Qi Baishi, a master of Chinese painting, once famously said, "Scholars live like us and die like us". It is said that learning art should learn the charm of the teacher's painting, not just the imitation of appearance. The same is true for designing stamps. Designers should have their own style and innovative spirit. When learning the strengths of others, don't copy them, but use them creatively. Moreover, stamp design should show its own political, cultural, historical and geographical characteristics and highlight its own national characteristics, so that the stamps designed can have fresh vitality.

In addition, you can use the following methods to start:

First, prepare tools and materials.

Drawing paper (16 open or A4)

paperboard

Pencils, oil pastels, markers and other painting tools.

Second, determine the theme.

Or people, or scenery, as long as they are healthy and uplifting, anything can be done.

Third, the form of expression.

Pictures and words can be designed on stamps.

① Different kinds of paintings have different forms of expression.

Oil pastels are saturated in color, eye-catching and better in visual effect than crayons;

Paper-cutting has the characteristics of strong folk customs and fine craftsmanship.

Tearing paper stickers are full of magical effects, which can better show the author's hands-on operation ability and rich imagination;

The color transition of computer color jet works is natural, the color blocks are uniform, and the illusion effect is very good.

② the shape of stamps

Rectangular or square, which is the traditional stamp shape.

Round or triangular, semi-circular, fan-shaped and diamond-shaped are more personalized.

Fourth, highlight the elements of stamps.

① Tooth hole

Draw the shape of the stamp with a pencil first, and then draw the perforations around it (in fact, draw a semicircle with a certain interval, with the arc inward and the straight line [diameter] outward). If the size of the drawing is 16, you can use a mineral water bottle cap when drawing a semicircle.

It is appropriate to draw a semicircle with a diameter of 1.5-2 cm.

Of course, you can also consider five-star, oval, diamond and other special-shaped perforations.

② Theme pictures

Painting according to the theme is the most important element of stamps. It embodies the author's aesthetic orientation, artistic skills and color matching ability. It is the key to the success of stamp design, so we must create it carefully.

In short, the design drawings should be bold in color and full in composition.

③ Country name and face value

A stamp must have the name of the country or region where it is issued. The country names of China stamps are "China Post" and China. Because posting stamps means that postage is prepaid by postal users, each stamp should reflect the postage cost, that is, the face value. If it costs 80 cents to send an ordinary letter to our city (Hong Kong) and 120 cents to send an ordinary letter to other places, we can mark 80 cents or 120 cents when designing stamps, and of course we can use other denominations. It should be noted that when marking the country number and face value, we should adhere to the principle of "striking and not hindering the expression of the theme pattern", and we can design it on the side.