Why Not Associates designs seaside stamps

Why Not Associates is behind the design of the Royal Mail’s new set of stamps, celebrating the UK’s piers and seaside architecture.

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The six stamps and the four-stamp miniature sheet have been designed to show the development of the British seaside from the Victorian and Art Deco eras, through to the Modernism of the 1930s and up until the contemporary designs of today.

Why Not Associates partner Andy Altmann and designer Shaheena Pooloo led the project, working with architectural photographer Lee Mawdsley and a locations expert. The piers and buildings were selected by Royal Mail.

Altmann says: “Firstly we were thinking of working with illustrators who could show the architectural detail of the buildings but we thought they’d work better photographically.”

Altmann says that on site visits his team fell victim to “classic British seaside weather” on some occasions, including Bangor where “it rained continuously for five hours”.

A kiosk on the pier, used as a shelter was lit just before dusk when the rain cleared “giving us a really atmospheric shot”, he adds.

All of the shots were researched before going on location according to Altmann who says: “Before we got there we knew what shot we wanted, so we’d do that first and then try to take others.

“When we shot Southwold Lighthouse the locations guy managed to get us on to the roof of Adnams Brewery.”

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