The History of Printing Stamps.

The first feed paid stamps were first introduced in 1840 after the postal reform. The concept was design by James Chalmers & Sir. Rowland Hill, the idea was to be able to send mail through the Kings Mail service. The Penny Black was world's first adhesive postage stamp, before all stamps used glue. The Penny Black was an Intaglio print, the stamp was printed using 11 plates.

There where two adhesive in 1840 the Penny Black & Two penny Blue, the Penny Black could post a letter weighting up to half an ounce while the Two penny Blue could deliver a letter weighting a full ounce. The Penny Black ran from May 1^st 1840 & wasn’t official until the 6^th of that month, the Black penny stopped a year later.

Stamps have been known to use such printing techniques like Intaglio, Lillo, Offset, & Lithograph. The most common used today print stamp is Offset. Offset printing is where a picture or design is first made chemically on to aluminium or copper plate. Once attached to the printing press the plate is placed into ink and water. While the non-image parts are placed within water, this acts as a “repellent” to the ink so the design will only transferred onto the paper.

The most common print method in the 1850 was Intaglio, this is method is the most time consuming but gives out more detail. This method was later scarped for a less expensive & time consuming method which is the one we used today.

Some of the earlier stamps weren’t multi-coloured until 1854, the world’s first multi-coloured was printed in India by the East India Company. The stamp was of a portrait of Queen Victoria. It was lithograph print; the stamp was printed in two colours blue and red.

The penny black and most other early stamps needed to be separated with a scissors. In 1854 with the invention of perforated stamps that could be rip off each other. They only appeared in England at 1854, it wasn’t until 1857 that the United States started to print them perforated.

There have been many types of stamps designs for different events, the first stamp design to be design for an commemorate propose was issued in 1888 by New South Wales to mark its 100th anniversary. Commemorative stamps today are usually photo base & done digitally.

Stamps in the future look like they’re going to be replaced by a Postage Meter. A Postage Meter is a device that can be used to create evidence of post, this meter can be followed online. Postage Meters act as proof of payment just like an adhesive stamp. The meters have only appeared in Austria, Belgium, France & the USA.

By, Simon Burdall.

Stamp Research.

Commemorative Stamps.
Commemorative stamps are a limited release to commemorate a person or an event.





Ceremonial Stamps.
Ceremonial stamps are a limited release that follow an event.






Stop Family Violence, 2004.

This Stamp was design by a six-year-old little girl how had been an victim of Family Violence & therefore her name is not mention in any sources of information but the name of the art director who selected the design was Carl T. Herrman.

This stamp was printed at AVR, Clinton SC, 29325, which is somewhere in the USA. This stamp was made using Dia Nippon Kiko (according to the official release of the stamp).

This stamp style is an hand drawn image expressing what victims of Family Violence must feel.

There are some light colours in the foreground & a lot of dark & dim colours in the background. The typeface is hand drawn & seems like to been done of a backboard to give it some Victorian era kind of feel. I doesn't seem to have much space but for the subject matter it doesn't need it.

Sources used;
Family Violence Fundraising Stamp

London's 1012 Olympics Aquatics.

The Aquatics Diver was illustrated Julian Opie. Where was the stamp made

I can't really find any information about the specific printing process for this stamp, but going on modern day stamps I would say I was ether Laser or Inkjet print because these are the process best suited for this image. These are the best process because Laser will print pixel by pixel & the Inkjet where ink is sprayed onto the paper like an stencil.

The colour is simple & is one block colour, the blue colour seems to represent water of the pool. There is a lot space around the image, this gives the main image stand out more. The image is of an diver jumping into the pool.

Sources used;
Julian Opie's Website I Printing Wiki

Types of prints.

The are many types of prints that don't use modern day tech, below are just a few of different hand made prints.
From left to right they are; Relief Print, Intaglio Print, Planographic, & Stencil.

Banksy







Banksy work is always interested me because of the style & he use the wall or canvas as part of the image. For example the image of the whole in the wall give the impression that the whole wall has been painted.

Katsushika Hokusai.





Katsishika has been know for his "36 views of Mount Fuji" Project but some of his other work is every inserting & Influences alot of people. Most of his prainting & print are done by Woodblock printing.

Thank you,
Simon.

Publishing Lesson 2/10/09.

In the lesson we used the our work of the last four weeks & scan into photoshop. With the scaned images we used photoshop to make brushes, I choosed use my image of the Monkey to tunr into a brush. The process was easy and simple, by putting the image onto a trasperant background & making the image back & white we could save it as a brush template.

In the second half of the lesson we where told to make backgrounds for our blogs, I choose to have a less over powering background unlike the others. My background just has some of the brushes I made from the first half of the lesson. I like this background design mainly because you eye is still drawn to the blog not the background.

Thank you,
Simon.

Print Media Lesson 25/09/09.

This week lesson we learnt how to do etchings, using plastic we cut an image into the surface. This process can also be done with Zinc. After you finished the image you would put oil base pant on the surface until you can't see the image, after that you would rub of the the pant with a cloth in a half circle motion until the layer is nearly of then using some paper (we used scrape yellow pages).

Once the layer is off you get some wet paper & put the the etchings underneath the paper, then you would put the etching through an roller.

The same process you would be able to do a Lilo cut, a Lilo cut is where you cut an image into some rubber or wood & then pant the over the top of it an the print the image onto some paper.

Thank you,
Simon.

Print Media Lesson 18/09/09.

In the first half of the lesson we where spilt up again into to groups, the first group would have to make a Sun print, Lilo cut, & finish of the organic print we did last week. The stone print I did last week came out well, the images look the as they should but I did rub a bit of the print off on one side. Overall the stone process work really well. After I finished the stone print I try some Lilo cuts, Lilo cut is where you cut an image into wood or rubber, which will later be printed & print on paper & the cut will leave an image on the paper, I've made a cut, as show below, of a weird face.

While I was making the Lilo cut I also did an Sun print, an Sun print is where you use some photogenic paper an you put some items transparent or not into some store of shape. I used a class with small square shapes all around it, I through this would make an interesting pattern but I didn't work as well as I hoped & look just like the out side of the class.

In the second part of the lesson we where taken down to the print room where we did some Relief prints, where we use intersting objects to make parterns like a leaf, bubble warp or a feather. We also did another form of Relief printing where you put two peices of paper on top of a plate of print then draw whatever you want, I found this to be the funnest because I enjoy free drawing, The images came out well apart from one where I push a bit to hard down on the paper.

Thank you,
Simon.

*(Images coming soon, problem with Blogger's image uploader.)

Print Media Lesson 11/09/09.

The lesson was spilt up into to parts, in the first part of the lesson half the group had to go out and find interesting textures in & around the college using the rubbing technique. There are a few inserting textures like Brick Walls, The lettering on the City of Bath College sign, & leafs but after those textures it gets a bit repetitive.

Original Image









The next part of the lesson we did Fresh Prints, where we made a copy image without the use of a computer onto I there paper or something organic. I brought a stone along and print some of my drawings onto it (as shown above). I don’t have any pictures of the stone this mainly because it takes 24 hours for the image to dry up from printing. Fresh Print is done by using print vanishes to print over the image & then rubbing the image into item you’ve chosen I.E: paper, stone or leather. I have some paper prints but they didn’t come out as well on the scan.

Thank you,
Simon.