Royal Mail –
D-Day 75th Anniversary
Making the most of a small canvas to communicate seismic world events.
How do you communicate an historic event of almost unimaginable magnitude via a set of tiny but perfectly formed stamps? Painstaking research and careful framing helped to show the way.
Sector
Arts & Culture
What we did
Discovery & Definition
- Audits
- Consultation
Design Development
- Creative concepts
- Brand expression
- Packaging design
- Print design
- Art direction
Delivery
- Artwork
Context
The 6th June 2019 is a significant date in European history. It marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, when Allied forces landed on Normandy’s beaches in 1944 to liberate Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The operation – codenamed Neptune, part of the larger Operation Overlord – was the largest in seaborne military history. We were honoured to be asked by Royal Mail to conceive and design a set of 11 commemorative stamps to mark this moment in history.
Solution
Working with Royal Mail’s design team and historians at the Imperial War Museum, 11 images were selected to accurately and dramatically convey the timeline of the landings on the stamps themselves, as well as across supporting products. Our involvement also saw us creating the day-of-issue handstamps. A meticulous design process for a truly momentous event.
Working with Baxter & Bailey on this project was a pleasure. The storytelling through the images really illustrates the key events of D-Day as they occurred. They delivered a great solution to quite a challenging brief and took their considered understanding of the subject through to the accompanying philatelic products too.
Impact
This bestselling set of special stamps generated news headlines all over the world and picked up two prestigious Drum Awards nominations along the way.
Awards
The Drum Design Award
Shortlisted 2020
The Drum Roses Awards
Shortlisted 2020
Special Thanks
Thanks to Dean and the Royal Mail design team for inviting us to design such a significant commemorative stamp issue. The opportunity to research deeply into such a momentous historic event and to expand our knowledge in the process was a rare treat.