Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Will Bryant, artist and designer based in Austin, Texas. My work is colorful and fun, kind of wacky, zany. Imagine Peewee's Playhouse and 90s basketball coming together. I worked on a wide range of projects from editorial work to big advertising campaigns, to murals, packaging, to apparel. I try to mix it up and keep myself interested in what I do. In this class, we're going to design a series of postage stamps. This project was developed by the faculty of Portland State University. I previously taught there, and really enjoyed teaching this class, and engaging with students on this particular project. Postage stamps are one of those things that are often overlooked but everywhere. That's what, starting out as a young designer, you start looking for evidence of design in the everyday life, and postage stamps is one of the things. It's a collectible, it's small, but a lot of people see it. I think that's what makes it really exciting, is that there's a potential for a large audience to see your work. In this class, you're going to get to pick a theme, and I'll help you with some suggestions on what you could do. For my project, I chose the theme of the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. Based on that theme, if you do a lot of research, research sounds like a scary word but it's actually fun because it involves the Internet, but you're also going to do a mood board, which you might not be familiar with, but we'll dive into and I will show you examples of what a mood board is. That helps guide your process. Then after you have solidified that mood board, there'll be tons of exploration and experimentation, and figuring out the style that you're going to go for. Then, end result is a series of postage stamps with the title stamps. From this class, you'll be creating your own series of postage stamps. I would like for you to upload them to the project gallery where I will also upload mine so that we can give each other feedback, you can rip mine apart, and I'll be constructive towards yours. But I want to see your process, and what you're interested in and help push that into a more interesting territory. For me, I think the main thing that a student would take away with this project is making something as a cohesive series. You start with one and then you kind of extrapolate some of those styles, or color application, or some of the smaller components of this design to make it then fit within a family of things. That's a skill set that you'll use in a variety of projects in the future of your career.
2. Getting Started: So why would you design a postage stamp series? I don't know. Mostly because it's going to be really fun and challenging are the main reasons, but then you're also kind of testing some design principles. You're working on developing a consistent system on how you would treat something, so unifying series. So they feel like they go together, each of the three stamps and the title stamp, think of it as family members. You can all tell they come from the same place but they might each be slightly different. So, another important component of this product is that you're working within constraints, size, a series, a theme, all these things are something that you can but up against and weigh your decisions so that you can push this thing further and develop it more based on those constraints. So you're making appropriate decisions based on line weight, or color, or proportion, composition and knowing that you have these limitations that are provided specifically from the medium. So, what materials will you need for this class? Whatever you're comfortable drawing with, potentially some paper and a pen, pencils, colored pencils, you can use whatever medium you're comfortable working with, and then you'll likely need a scanner and some sort of editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. So what is it that you'll exactly be making? There'll be three stamps and then there's a title card, or title treatment depending on the format that you choose. You have options which can be scary but also free, you decide. So what size should your stamp be? Roughly one inch by one and a quarter. But there is flexibility in that, maybe there's a reason why you would make them super long, maybe you're doing full body basketball players that are all above 7 feet tall, so maybe long and skinny makes sense, or maybe you're interested in architecture, so you're going to do landscape buildings of the mid century. With only working with three stamps, I would try to keep them all in the same orientation and what I mean by that is either all portrait or all landscape. You're going to have a greater problem of trying to figure out how these things work together as a stamp series and how they're displayed if you mix that up.
3. Stamp Inspiration: Before starting most projects, I like to look at examples of what exists within that realm. So today we're going to look at some stamps that I'm really into that have found mostly through research on the Internet. This first stamp it looks to be like a vintage Russian stamp. I love the flat color but there's rich texture happening. This is probably from a unique printing process done in history but you can see that there's like a dynamic composition happening, but there's a lot of visual interest yet there's very simple shapes. Here's a Cuban stamp from 1981 with planes and rockets and overlap and color overlays. There's a lot happening with very little moves. I think those things lean themselves to really interesting compositions. So, you can see that they're repeating the color purple both on the plane but in the background and then it's split by other geometric shapes, and then the type is treated around the edge. Then you have a lot of negative space of the type is very legible. This psychedelic stamp from Israel is from 1975. There's this chill bird sitting on this colorful tree, look at that wavy grass. Just the visual language this style is evoking is really interesting and you can see through the printing process, there's slight color bleeds which you could recreate digitally but that's probably done from this printing process. This German outlet I guess is what this guy is. I don't know what's going on but he's got some energy apparently. You can see it at the bottom. It's from the 80's as well. I love that they've made this object into a character. I think that's fun and playful. I do that a lot in my own work. Very simple color palette. It seems like it's printed on an off white paper but there's also white and orange and black, really nice character design. This series was done in one of my previous classes that I taught at Portland State by student Seth Gale. He did a series on things that move, so various modes of transportation: walking, a horse, a carriage, a boat, a bike, a train, a car, a plane, and a spaceship, and the title stamp that he treated was just the top. Then on the back it gave more information about this series. So this is like going a little bit above and beyond. He also created a pattern based on all the geometry that he used in those elements. You can see how stylistically each of these goes together. This is really great evidence of a stamp series. Here's another student example by previous student Daniel Cole. He did game changers, shoes that have like changed the game. You have the Air Jordan 1, the Reebok Pump, the Adidas toe shell, Allen Iverson the answer I believe, Converse Chuck Taylor, and Nike Shox. So he's got some background treatments that are all derived from the soles of the shoes. Instead of showing the entire shoe, he's showing like very notable recognizable parts of each shoe, like the shell toe on the Adidas or the pump on the tongue of the Reebok. So, you might think that stamps are typically very serious or just collectors items for old people that are interested in these things, but they're not, they can be very fun and vibrant, they can be humorous, they can be educational, like imagine a series of state birds or state flowers that serves as an educational moment as someone like buy these things and learn that they had no idea what the bird of Idaho is because I don't so maybe I need to find this postage stamp series. Next, we're going to look at some stamps that actually exist in the real world by professionals. So first up, we have Jessica Hishe, she did one for I think around Valentine's, but it's about love and has her like her notable lettering, very bold but ornate, simple color palette again. Next we have a husband and wife team always with honor that design a series of postage stamps on coastal birds. They have a really amazing approach in style similar to Charlie Harper mid century designer illustrator that did a lot of animal stuff. They love animals. They basically did a bunch of projects about animals and then have since then done stuff for Nike and the US Postal Service. So you can make things about what you're interested in and that's how you'd eventually get work doing that. Another example is by Andy Rementer. He did a series on 3D printing for the Republic of San Marino. These involve a lot of humor and it's very abstract and kind of absurd, poppy colors also treated consistently and the type treatment is there, like that's established and then comic inside is what changes. I also have a Pinterest board just in general for postage stamp research. There's some reference material in here and then there like maybe the size or a vector demo on how to make the edge of a postage stamp. But then there's just tons of visual interest here of different stamp examples which I would encourage you to look at, maybe make your own board of all these different things that you respond to. It's important to get familiar with the topic, the actual object of the stamp is something that you should just know a little bit about before you start any project. You want to research what that is, what has existed, and then what catches your eye and put it all in one place. Whether you end up using it or not, it's there for you. So, often postage stamps might seem like they're very serious but they don't have to be. They could be humorous or funny or playful or whimsical whatever really suits your interest, and you can choose a theme based on that. Next step, we're going to dive into picking a theme and I will explain all the struggles I went through in figuring out what I was going to do.
4. Picking a Theme: What is a theme? A theme is a main idea or concept that is connected across multiple pieces, and why would you use a theme? It's a pretty relevant thing that happens in visual culture, apparent in ad campaigns to exhibitions. It's an umbrella that allows you to really focus and explore under this one idea. When picking a theme, you might run into some obstacles like trying to make a decision. I did. It's very hard. I'm interested in a lot of things and I'm trying to figure out what would be best for this class. I will talk a little bit more about why I chose what I chose. But for you, you can think big, you can think small. What are you interested in? I started by making a list, like I'm into these things, Googly eyes, basketball, bright colors, Memphis design. For you, you could start with birds, dinosaur, cities, national parks, flowers, but you could narrow that down based on where you live, or where you would like to travel, or where you have traveled. So, it could be birds of the US or West Coast birds of the US. It's all different levels of constraint that you can work with. So if it's a broader subject, it might free you up to have more options. But as you narrow it down, that could actually be easier. And these are things you might want to upload and ask questions, or just brainstorm by making a lot of lists. Choosing a narrower, more specific, theme might be easier because you have less options, and you're just kind of forced to work with these six to seven things that exist under that theme. So that limitation could be nice, if you're having a hard time making decisions. At the initial stages of this project, you'll want to come up with a couple of themes, maybe two or three, just so you have some options. Not that you do all the research for each of those themes, but know that if you go down this one path and then you get stumped or you struggle with making decisions or coming up with three stamps, then you have something else to fall back on that you already know that you're interested in, and might lead to what you'll end up doing. So, while you're trying to pick your theme, in the back of your mind, you do want to know that you are going to be making something that's kind of small. So that legibility and working at a small scale is a constraint that you want to keep in mind. But know that most things can be simplified and will read, whether it's a highly detailed dinosaur or a very simple, imagine a cut paper dinosaur, you can at least reference that by a silhouette, and that's two different approaches to the same topic, and that's something that you'll encounter regardless of what you choose, is figuring out what illustration style is going to best suit your needs, or challenge you the most, or be the most appropriate for the theme that you choose. I would advise not picking a theme based on one good stamp idea. It has to be a series, so you have to have two others. A total of three. So, don't get so focused on just that one that's really, really awesome. Know that you're going to have to have three solid ideas, and I would advise you in coming up with a list of five, just so you have options while you're trying to execute and do rough sketches for this, so that if one of them gets really frustrating or it isn't working the way you wanted it to, you have others to try already without having to do any more thought or research. So, here we're looking at my sketchbook and I have some general themes, some specific themes when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. So, some of the broad themes I had, which some of these could be useful to you. It was basketball at large, before I narrowed it down to what I wanted to do. Maybe it was notable courts or 90's players, 90's uniforms, then a very broad theme of art history, foods, snacks, could be tasty, commemorative, thinking of maybe this has to do with presidents, maybe it has to do with automobiles. That's another broad topic. Same as educational. Pop culture is a place to start. States, parks, birds, flowers, maybe dinosaurs. Then when I was getting specific I was like, "I think I'm going to do something about Michael Jordan". Just a very special interest of mine. So, I thought about notable things relating to culture outside of basketball, also very specific to his basketball career, but longer shorts, he was noted for extending that trend. Space Jam, pivotal moment in my history, as a human. The tongue, he often stuck his tongue out in basketball. Sneakers, or be like Mike commercial. I thought about doing just three shoes from his line. And then him as a celebrity slash global icon. Or maybe I do three portraits from different times of his career, 89, 91, 96. These are just things I was thinking about. So, it's constantly going from broad to very focused, and then seeing what I resonate with, and then also have here some quick title stamp layouts that I could do. Originally, I was going to do more than three stamps, so that's how to approach it with that, and then ultimately I decided on this format right here. In the next lesson, we're going to take our narrowed down themes and do some research to see which one has the most potential.
5. Research & Moodboards: So, research in Mood Boards are something that is relevant throughout the industry in graphic design, interior design, all sorts of creative industries use Mood Boards to help guide projects, help convey their ideas to clients, it helps you get more engaged with the content that you're going to be working with. A very informal route is creating a Pinterest Board of images that all relate to what you're trying to do, what you're interested in, reference images, illustration styles, typography and lettering examples of things that you would like to emulate or that would inspire your project. The first step is as simple as a Google search which we should all be able to do. I'm very familiar with my topic. I'm kind of a nerd about the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. So, I'll start broad but then we'll get maybe very specific. So, let's just start with Michael Jordan. So, these are just a range of images, some profile shots, action shots. I'm looking for characteristics and traits that I could then simplify in my signature style. Here's a caricature of him. So, you have exaggerated features, you see a classic uniform, maybe a pose that is known. Then just by clicking on this one, other related images come up, you can see here with exaggerated ears and nose, and mouth and this forced perspective, that's kind of fun. Then I might choose to put that in the board. So, when you're searching, you start out broad then you get specific. So, I started with Michael Jordan, maybe I do, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, so they all three show up. You can see photos from a very particular time because they were together on the same team during the late 90s. So, I might cruise through some of these images which leads me to ideas of maybe I could do a scene that has all three of them in and that scene is split up between the three stamps. So, when it's together, you see an entire scene but individually, they were. That's one concept I could do. Now, I like try to figure out an image that really fit that parameter. Maybe that's not that specific. Maybe now I'm getting a nitty-gritty of like, What shoes did they wear during this year? So, Michael Jordan, 1996, I already know the answer what these the shoes are but it's the Air Jordan 11. So, is that something that could come into play? Maybe it's not. This detail doesn't fit into the stamp itself but it's could be information that is visually used in the title stamp. These are things to be noting, you could write them down, you can pin them. It shouldn't be a precious thing. You could even do one initial mood board for your theme, where you are just like broad stuff and you have multiple themes in this one Pinterest board. But then as you get more specific to what topic you're going to be doing, start a new board that then also has lettering examples, illustration styles and then you want to look for resources and places to look for those things other than just Google image search. So, this felt very appropriate for me because there's not really a ton of blogs that are going through the history of the Bulls. I'm less concerned about the illustration style,= because I already have something in mind because of my own portfolio. But for you, that's going to be another part is like figuring out how you want this to look. Is there a style that you've been thinking about that you want to emulate? Is there something you've already been toying with and you think it would be appropriate for this project? Start pulling together your previous work that relates and then other illustrators that you admire. One of my favorite sites is It's Nice That. It's based in London, they have a printed publication that is beautifully done. It's a highly curated, thoughtful, visual culture site. Everything from photography to illustration to fine art. So, for me, I went through my archives whether it was on Tumbler or on my portfolio site and found things that were related or I was thinking about utilizing. So, I'm searching my blog for things tagged basketball. So, I have some portraits that came up from a recent project, icons, some of the stuff doesn't feel is appropriate for this project. But I'm just kind of keep digging around this pattern, this seems like something that can be useful. Maybe it's a boader treatment I'll just put it in there so I can see it next to other images. For this project, I ended up choosing a direction that's more challenging for me. I typically don't draw a lot of people, like capturing the likeness of someone is hard to do and not something I've done much in my work. You can see an example here. During the shrug game, he hit six threes in the first half of a game and he did this shrug which also is then connected to current culture in the shruggie emoticon so I combine those things. That's normally my approach, is like this contemporary reference and it's more crude and kind of funny. But I chose to actually do portraits for this project and I've pulled a bunch of references, looking at characters. I have some people that I've drawn in my portfolio that I'm also putting in my mood board. But it's trying to look at a lot of different things and take those in to filter them into what this product could be. So, choosing a style is entirely up to you. It could be something you do often or you've wanted to do. It doesn't have to be based on previous work. Mine's sort of is and then a combination of this new challenge of trying to capture the essence of humans that either if they have notable features that makes it a little easier. But for your sake, you have a lot of options. You don't have to make it based on previous work but it can be. So now we'll look at the Pinterest board that I've created specifically for my project. I also have a Pinterest board just in general for postage stamp research, the specific to the medium that you might find interesting and there'll be a link provided for you. In my board, there's tons of caricatures and vintage retro t-shirt graphics. I've picked those things just to see how other people have captured the lightness of these individuals, but also, maybe some of the geometry that comes into play if there's patterns or tight treatments. Just trying to pay attention to things that already exist and there are also like in-game photos. The title that I chose is based on the NBA championship series VHS that came out for the year in which they had the championship season, The Unstoppables. But I've also picked up shoes. One of them more notable things for Dennis Rodman versus crazy hairstyles. Instead of doing a front portrait, I immediately, upon seeing those images, thought that's going to look more interesting, and it'll break up between the trio of them. It's like if you have two front portraits then you have someone from the back and it just like that switch adds a little bit more pacing through the series. Then you also start to see that I have some of my own work, whether there's patterns and textures. Some of the figures that I've drawn before and previous work, that's all in here next to these photos. So, there's a big range but still, I've dug into mostly all of Chicago Bull's stuff. So, I've gone through the rabbit holes of the Internet and you find one image that you respond to and then you might find another just based on similar things. They're from all over the places, not just like one spot. Now that I've done my research and created a mood board, I'm going to start piecing together some of the main images that I really respond to, the multiple photos of the individual that I'll use for reference and start doing some sketches.
6. Sketching Your Stamps: Now that we're at the sketching phase of this project, there's some things that you should know. It's not necessarily important on how these sketches look or how many you should do, as many that you're comfortable with. I would encourage more. I sometimes don't do as many as I should, to admit. But, this is also an opportunity for me to tell you that you should do what I tell you and not do what I do. Some other things to consider is that, you want to use this as a chance to push ideas. So, you might try variations on composition, you might try multiple conceptual approaches and just generate, and that could be a list. Sketchbooks don't need to be organized. They're not precious. It could be on scrap paper. It could be in a notebook like I have here. It really doesn't matter. It's whatever you have and you can keep track of. That's truly the important thing, is that you have something ready and available and can generate ideas. That's the point of sketching. Then, you will use those sketches as reference to then execute your final stamps. Oftentimes, I just fill up a sheet of paper or inside a sketchbook, the entire spread of just things related to that. It can be lists, it can be objects, anything related to that. You're just emptying your head of ideas and drawing styles, how you can draw a certain thing, many different ways. The point is just to get a bunch of that out. So, you have tons of options and tons of things to respond to and you can start out broad like that and then focus. Even when I was in school and I was told by the teacher that I need to do 50 thumbnails or 10 thumbnails, I was reluctant and stubborn and just didn't like sketching. Still don't really like sketching and don't sketch nearly enough. But, I will say that when you do commit to it and you do sketch, it makes the project better. It's challenging and frustrating and difficult, but also know that it's not precious and no one really has to see this part. So, if you do get stuck during this phase, and you very likely will, because I sure did, you can come back to it. Maybe you explore a different theme. You can start sketching for multiple themes just to see what is more stimulating and more interesting and engaging to you. Or maybe you need to step away and go for a walk. Maybe you talk to a friend or you consult someone on what's your thought on this direction versus this direction. Those are multiple options you can do. Maybe you need something to eat, maybe something to drink, maybe a lot of something to drink. Those are all things that you can do to stimulate those ideas. I already have three decent sketch ideas that I could pursue, but I'm going to try to push myself and push the idea and generate as much content as possible. So, I've got three more ideas that I'm going to sketch out, ones about profiles, one signature shoes, and one puts an emphasis on the jersey. So, for the profiles, it's just like kind of the silhouette situation. So, this would be very simple in the color palette, but you really could maybe do more, two or three colors, depending on how you could break that down. But I just don't know if enough visual interest is going to be there to read who these individuals are, like you'd really have to capture their essence. But again, it's just a crude sketch and it conveys the idea. So, we're going to move on. So, for the shoe, start with Michael Jordan. I know that this has a shiny toe, some nice color along the bottom, maybe legs are involved. Maybe it's a court, so it could keep that consistent. Dennis Rodman's tough because I can't remember exactly which one, but I think it's the one with the backwards swoosh, so we'll put that. These are all notes for later. Then maybe, I come down and do a variation on this one to where it's cropping in on the shoe and it's more about the details. So, this is the same concept but just a variation. I could even keep pushing that and think about different angles. Maybe it's not always the same. Maybe it changes up. Then, for this other concept on the jersey, it's like I think I'll keep it pretty simple and centered. This would give you more about the type in the number and less about that individual and what they look like. So hopefully, you're able to just keep doing this over and over again, pushing yourself and pushing the idea in coming up with several different approaches. So at this point, you should have a few pages filled with what looks like chicken scratch and random notes and random things that tie into this theme or multiple themes. But after you get to a point where you have finalized a few different approaches, maybe three to five that resemble thumbnails that are supposed to be stamps, then you have to make that decision of which one do you resonate with more, which one seems the more interesting, which one do you think you would have more control over. Looking back through my sketches, I could tell that I was genuinely excited about this original idea. The first one I came up with, which isn't always the case, but it happens a lot. But it wasn't just necessarily the subject, but I also come up with a personal objective. So, pay attention to those things. Maybe you accidentally drew something bigger or you spent more time on it without knowing. That's the sign that you're interested in that direction. It might not mean that's the best one or the one you should choose, but just pay attention to those things. For me, I kept pushing myself to try to come up with other approaches and these other ones could be good. I'm excited about shoes. I could see how that could work out, but it also requires a certain demographic to not only know that they're basketball shoes, but then they're specific basketball shoes to specific people. So, it would require a little bit more on my part to convey that to a broader audience. We are doing portraits with their names and numbers integrated. Seems like the best idea for me. Then, also pairs background patterns stylistically for me, that elevates the interest from a personal standpoint. So at this point, if you're having a hard time finding the right person to ask for feedback, use the people that are in the class with you. Upload your projects to the project gallery and I would love to see them as well. Now that you've narrowed down and chosen what direction you want to do, we're going to take these rough sketches and then move into a digital rough phase and start developing our final stamps.
7. Finalizing Your Stamps: When working on the first stamp, I like to put each stamp in its own file, depending on how you organize things, you could do everything in the same file, but I've worked per stamp per file. So, I've brought in my rough sketch which I just took a photo with my iPhone, adjusted some of the settings and brought it into a high risk file, that's four by five, it's 600 DPI, so obnoxiously big. After I've brought that in, I like to drop the opacity. So, there's this loose feathered reference underneath and then I've done a digital architectural sketch trying to get more personality in the line, but then also further developing how this person looks. Depending on what you're doing, you might not have to be as detailed or as organized as I am on this. So, this just builds up over time. So, with another layer, I'm getting more of the features a little bit more intention with a line, ultimately leading to the final line work that I use for filling in color. I might drop in the background and just give me something to respond to. It might not stay bright red, it might not. I don't know yet, but that's where I'm at. Then I want to add some more visual interest to the background. So, I've worked in a pattern that is inspired from his shoes, after you add fill color to the skin and accent lines, a lot more personality is coming to life. So, the next thing is adding in the type, which you'll need to add the worth of the stamp or any other information that you want to convey with this. So, I've chosen this treatment to do for the name and the number and I'm going to make the stamp worth whatever their jersey number is. I've looked at some other options potentially doing like a drop shadow and highlights, but these things I'm going to start making decisions after I've developed the other ones. So, this system, I've got a loose idea, but I have a feeling that I might change it based on the rest of the stamps, so that the series becomes a little bit more cohesive. At this point, I have one stamp finished of Michael Jordan. I'm pretty pleased with how the line work and the pattern are working together, but I'm not convinced that this is the best solution for the type. So, I've started working on a system in which it would slightly reference one of the other ideas that I had, that was evoking basketball trading cards. So, for this I'm going to just use the portrait and then rework the type, so that it's more consistent throughout the series. I think in your project, you might come to a point where certain things fill finalized but others don't, maybe that's a border or a background. For me, it's the type, like I want that to be consistent throughout and I want to develop this system so that it feels cohesive. In my other file, which I'm laying out the hand card, I have Michael Jordan placed and then this arched banner along the bottom. There's not a lot going on but it offers a slight visual interest and then a container for this type to rest in, and then a new number treatment that offers a drop shadow. So, it's a little bit bolder and sets off against the background. So, after I got this realized and knew what I was going to do, so I had a game plan. I went ahead and finished the other two portraits of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, and now I've started really thinking about the placement of those things and how this works overall together on this, what could be a physical object that goes in a post office. So, we'll take a look at Scottie Pippen, has a similar pattern, slightly different. So, there's more personality coming through, but in a different way, and then Dennis Rodman references his hairstyles. So, the background pattern references that, and then the focal point is his hairstyle, that's very dominant. Those colors feel a little bit off, so I've adjusted the color which he often wore his hair red, but not with this particular hairstyle. I also took away some of the highlights that were on him, but I feel like after taking even longer break from looking at them that the highlights them missing really takes away from what was happening, I guess with the system that I developed. It's either they should go off of Michael and Scottie, or all three should have them. So, that's the decision that I have to make. So, at this point, you might be around 75 to even 95 percent finished with this. But there's a lot of tweaks in small things, maybe big things that happen at this stage that can really tighten up the consistency between each of them, so that it feels like a series. Somethings to look at, maybe the color palette is one like in my case, one was standing out a little too much and didn't feel like it was as a part of the series as it could be. Or maybe it's lineweight, one of your stamps feels slightly different treatment, maybe it's too thick, too thin or there's not enough detail or too much detail on one of them. Those are all things to look at, and then a good exercise to help figure out what it could be is to zoom out on your screen. Maybe even printing it, printing it helps a whole lot too just to see it as an actual printed tangible thing off a screen. A good exercise is to pay attention to which one is your favorite, which one stands out the most? Ask yourself why, is it just the subject matter, or is there a detail or the coloring. Like what do you respond to the most? Then what of that can you apply to the other two so that they all feel as equally important or as equally as interesting. Once you have all three stamps finalized and the series very cohesive and you're pleased with the outcome, or not pleased, but want to be done, the next thing is that you have to create the title stamp or type treatment that goes along at the top or its own stamp, depending on the format slash layout that you chose. So, when I was working on my type treatment for the hang card, I had originally thought that I was going to have a subtle background pattern, but after I tried it, it just competed way too much with the stamps themselves. It felt right and the style was consistent, but it just competed visually, so that I decided to go with just pure white with slightly colored type, to give some emphasis but not too much to compete with the stamps themselves. So, the purpose of the title stamp or title card is so that the viewer seeing these stamps has a little bit more insight to what this is. Why is this a series or what is it called? This is your opportunity to provide more information. Mine is pretty simple and unique, and doesn't, it could be more descriptive, I could introduce a lot more language that gives more of a history when these players played, how many championships they won, there's a lot more that I could add to it. For your stamp series, maybe it's the same. You can go more simple or out, or maybe it's more complicated, but the whole point is that you're adding something that is not present in the stamps. So, it completes the whole series and just makes it feel fully resolved. Once you finalize the type and you finalize your stamps, then you're finished with the project. So, congrats.
8. Conclusion: Thanks so much for taking this class. I hope you had fun. If you're looking to push your project further there are plenty options that you can do so, maybe you want to make this more of a portfolio piece, you could extend the series, maybe instead of just three, it turns into five or six stamps or you can make a promo poster some marking material that helps promote the stamp series that you might see in a post office. Also, I'd love to see your final projects in the project gallery or any process images you would like to share, just so the other people in the class can see it. Thanks again. I'm looking forward to seeing what you made.
9. What's Next?: way.
Will Bryant, Artist and Designer
