Bijzondere vluchten

The postage stamp for exceptional plane flights was (and still is?) issued every ten years. Over the past decades, the designs were dominated by actual images of various planes and birds, and only once by the mythological figure of Mercury. In an attempt to move away from such figurative approaches, I tried a more conceptual and abstract direction—something that would evoke an association with flying in general.

Inspired by comic books from my youth, I remembered studying how Maarten Toonder drew distant ravens flying around the heavy towers of Sir Bommel’s castle. Toonder’s simple brushstroke to accurately depict a bird inspired me to try something similar. Elaborating on that simple image seemed enough to serve my design objective. The Director General of Dutch Post had to approve each design himself, and he was very hesitant. Disapproval slowly spread across his face. I felt failure lurking and tried to convince him by audaciously claiming that anyone on the street would associate the image with flying. Right at that moment, the coffee lady entered the room, and to my dismay, he immediately asked her what she thought the image was conveying. Taken aback by the direct question and aware of the need to give the correct answer, she said that it made her think of “something flying through the air.” Bingo— the design was approved.

In keeping with the design of the image, I also created an italic typeface with a 45-degree angle. See under “Fonts.”