We at Breathe believe that stamps are very visible evidence that Britain is at the cutting edge of creative design and the Royal Mail’s commitment to regularly commissioning new stamp designs throughout the year should be commended. Although so far they have overlooked a very talented bunch of designers based in Henley-on-Thames!

The advent of email and mobile phones technology has changed the way we communicate with fewer and fewer letters being sent by post or ‘snail mail’ as it has become known.

Here at Breathe we try and support the use of stamps as much as we can while still using the new technology. If you receive a piece of creative direct mail from us you will notice that we always use a stamp and in fact we have banned that enemy of stamps, the franking machine, despite constant pressure from the Pitney Bowes call centre sales team!

At this time of year with the huge volume of Christmas cards being sent the stamp is enjoying a very high profile. It was in 1966 that the Royal Mail issued their first edition of Christmas stamps and the design featured a series of pictures painted by children. At the time I had two Aunts who worked for the Post Office in London and they decided to send my brother and I the first edition Christmas stamps on first day covers and this kick started my interest in British stamps. They also spotted a printing error in a block of stamps making these stamps rare and collectable, and they gave me a block of 4 which you can see opposite. You have to look pretty hard to spot the error; it is a missing ‘T’ in the name of the child who painted the picture bottom right stamp.

Royal Mail have a policy of alternating between and non-religious themes such as the 12 days of Christmas, children’s toys and pantomime characters. However last year they broke with tradition and the stamps featured both religious and secular themes but this year the Royal Mail revert back to tradition with a purely religious theme featuring the impact of the Pre-Raphaelite movement on church stain-glass windows. The stamps show stunning stain-glass window designs by William Morris, Henry Holiday and Sir Edward Burne-Jones from churches around England.

I hope the next time you reach for the franking machine you stop and decide to use a piece of British design heritage instead – the good old stamp!

We at Breathe have admired Alessi innovation for a number of years now so when Alessi featured in The McKinsey Quarterly I felt compelled to share the link with other interested parties who may have missed the article. 

When you get to the article look for the multimedia interactive link just under the photograph of Alberto Alessi and get a behind-the-scenes look at the design and operational processes of one of the world’s best-known design firms. The feature showcases Alessi’s formula for evaluating the risks and rewards of new product designs. It also includes video commentary by Alberto Alessi and a narrated slide show on the design firm.

Will design innovation continue to prosper even in these recessionary times?