uk first stamp designs

Ollie Saward

The following series’ of postage stamp designs

have been designed in response to the Royal

Mail’s competition brief of ‘UK Firsts’.

The brief asked designers to celebrate the idea

of ‘firsts’ and create stamps that inspire the

nation whilst instilling a sense of national pride.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I

enjoyed designing them.

Ollie

—Colour Blind Diagnosis

In 1897 English Chemist John Dalton was

the first person to accurately diagnose colour

blindness. Because of his discovery the term

Daltonism was used to describe the condition

although it is now referred to as deuteranopia.

To commemorate Dalton’s breakthrough the

later designed Ishihara colour test has been

employed to represent the discovery.

—Marshall Amplifiers

Marshall Amplifiers were the first amplifier

company to introduce a certain type of

valve in their amps, the higher-gain ECC83

valves running throughout the preamp, the

introduction of which effectively creating ‘loud’

guitar amps of today.

For this reason Jim Marshall is affectionately

known as the ‘Godfather of Loud’ and this set

of postage stamps is designed to celebrate his

legacy not only on rock and roll but popular

culture.

—First Postage Stamp

This series is designed to inform members of

the public that Britain was the first country to

introduce a standardized adhesive postage

stamp to represent that postage had been paid

on an item. This stamp came in the form of the

Penny Black, introduced in 1840.

FIRST!

FIRST!

FIRST!

FIRST!

FIRST!

FIRST!

—Penny Black Redesign

A selection of attempts to redesign the

original 1840 Penny Black, was the world’s

first adhesive postage stamp used in a public

postal system.

The idea of an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-

payment of postage was part of Sir Rowland

Hill’s 1837 proposals to reform the British

postal system.

The redesign is aimed to highlight Sir

Rowland Hill’s successful introduction of the

Penny Black and it countless international

incarnations ever since.

—Discovery of Penicillin

This set of postage stamps aims to

commemorate Alexander Fleming’s discovery

of Penicillin in 1928.

It is one of the earliest discovered and widely

used antibiotic agents - natural substances

that are released by bacteria into the their

environment, as a means of inhibiting other

organisms - it is chemical warfare on a

microscopic scale.

Fleming’s discovery is truly a landmark

in medical history that has put an end to

immeasurable human suffering.

A celebration of the discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928






—Theory of Evolution

Linear postage stamp series designed to

celebrate Charles Darwin’s great insight when

answering the eternal question’ Where did we

come from?’

The design itself is a reworking of the

famous Evolution of Man diagram. Here it

demonstrates the stages of evolution using

silhouettes of the species, depicting the

evolution of Ape to Queen - however I’m not

sure Her Majesty would approve of this series.

Cha

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Dar

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180

9 –

1882

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—Splitting the Atom

Series of stamps based on Ernest Walton &

John Cockroft’s successful splitting of the

atom in 1932.

They were the first people to split the atom in a

completely controlled manner. In doing so they

also became the first people to verify Einstein’s

law: E=mc2.

The series is designed to commemorate their

achievement and its impact on the scientific

community through the use of the familiar

atomic structure diagram.

Sp

litti

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he A

tom

Ern

est

Wal

ton

and

John

Coc

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t (1

932)

Sp

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932)

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—London Underground

This set of postage stamps is designed to

raise awareness of the fact that the London

Underground was the worlds first underground

railway.

In 1860 work began on the first attempt to

solve the problem of the capitals growing

congested streets. The Metropolitan Railway

was designed to link three of London’s main

line termini with the City.

The series carries the twelve colour

coordinated lines of the tube system in pairs

incorporating a circle to represent a station.

—Invention of Meccanno

The invention of Meccano by Frank Hornby

in 1901 was the worlds first engineering /

mechanics based toy.

A forerunner to Lego, it was the first toy that

enabled children the world over to explore their

imagination whilst learning the fundamentals

of engineering and physics. On this series the

invention is celebrated by a series of abstract

images created using Meccano pieces.

Frank Hornby 1901Invention of Meccano






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