Designing stamps, envelope and a seal

Each year, the Tourist Information Centre Kamnik organises events celebrating clothing heritage and traditional dress in Slovenia. For one edition of the event, I was commissioned to develop a series of commemorative materials, including postage stamps, a special envelope, and a postal cancellation seal.

The project began with the design of a set of stamps intended both for promotion and fundraising. Since the event focused on historical clothing traditions, I wanted the imagery to reflect not only the garments themselves but also the cultural context in which they were worn.

To achieve this, historical photographs were carefully colourised using colours that would have been appropriate to the original garments. This work was carried out in collaboration with Bojan Knific, one of Slovenia’s leading experts on traditional dress and clothing heritage.

The image depicting three men in traditional attire was based on a scan of a public-domain photograph from a private collection, while the image of three young women drew upon material from the collections of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum.

The visual language developed for the stamps was then extended to the commemorative envelope. Rather than treating the envelope as a separate piece, the reverse side was illustrated as a unified composition bringing together elements from both historical photographs. The solution respected production requirements while creating a coherent visual identity across the entire set.

A further challenge was the design of the commemorative postal cancellation seal. Unlike conventional print design, postal marks must account for the physical behaviour of ink during repeated stamping. Large solid areas can quickly lose clarity, so the final design relied on hatching and linework to ensure legibility and durability in use.

During the project, I was also commissioned to develop a promotional magazine cover using photography from the organisation’s archive, helping to extend the visual identity across additional communication materials.

What began as a set of postal products ultimately became an exercise in heritage interpretation, visual communication, and adapting historical material to contemporary audiences.