Stamp with Rainbow colors

The Pride

Date of Issue : 4 May 2016

Here is a stamp from Swedish Post featuring Rainbow Pride Flag . Though the stamp is on a controversial theme but the stamp is beautiful featuring Rainbow colors for my collection.

The rainbow flag, commonly the gay pride flag and LGBT pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. (Other uses of rainbow flags include a symbol of peace.) The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights marches. It originated in Northern California, but is now used worldwide.

Designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the design has undergone several revisions to first remove then re-add colors due to widely available fabrics.As of 2008, the most common variant consists of six stripes, with the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is commonly flown horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow.

--When Lisa Rydell was given the assignment to design the Pride stamp, the typography was the major challenge.

“The flag is just as it was since 1979 when the six colors were established and could not be changed. After a lot of discussions, we landed on a solution where the texts SVERIGE and BREV rest on the lower part of the red and orange bands. The lines add a calming, stable influence to the composition,” she says.

In the summer of 2014, Lisa Rydell took one of her creative, long walks at home and came up with the idea of a stamp with the Pride move- ment’s famous symbol as a motif.

“It just hit me that the rainbow flag would be the perfect motif on a stamp. I sent in the proposal to PostNord and it was accepted. That I was then given the opportunity to work with the design was a pleasant surprise.”

Her interest in stamps as a piece of art and message conveyor emerged 20 years ago when she was studying graphic design at Beckmans College of Design.

“Our teacher gave us an assignment to de- sign a stamp. It was fantastically inspiring and educational. Making a stamp was immediately added to my bucket list,” she says. 

Culture and fashion

Eventually, Lisa Rydell became a freelancer, and she had a long assignment at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, where she was responsible for the design and production of the exhibition posters.

During her career she continued to take on design jobs for the cultural sphere, including book design.

Send love greetings

Stamps are a reflection of today’s Sweden, where diversity is a given. Therefore, PostNord issue a stamp with Pride flag.

– By issuing a postage stamp with Pride flag, we want to stress the equal value and strength of people’s unique characteristics and differences. Pride flag has to our knowledge never been reproduced on a stamp before, and it feels great that it is now possible to send love greetings with Pride flag, says Per Ljungberg, head of the Communications Department, PostNord Sweden. 

Source : WOPA