An Art Director for the US Postal Services Explains How Postage Stamps Are Designed

Filmmaker David Friedman of AARP Studios and Ironic Sans created an fascinating mini-documentary featuring designer Antonio Alcalá, an art director for the US Postal Service, who shared the different processes that goes into designing a postage stamp, how he got into such a career and what he was doing beforehand.

It’s almost like a little haiku sometimes. You have to figure out on that tiny, tiny canvas, what are the essential elements to tell the story that needed to be communicated, to have a message to communicate, to have room for my typography. …I didn’t become a stamp designer until, it was after 50. When I’d been working with multipage books and museum exhibitions, all of a sudden I was having to design something that was, you know, one inch square. It was almost like learning a new job all over again, a new sort of skill set, to work on the Postal Service stamps.

Love Stamp

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.