Paquetville, NB / Timmins, ON

On 2 July 2009 the latest set of commemorative stamps we’ve designed for Canada Post will launch concurrently—in the small Acadian village of Paquetville, New Brunswick, where chanteuse Édith Butler was born and raised—and in Timmins, Ontario, where renowned folklorist Stompin’ Tom (Connors) was first granted a 14-month contract to play at the city’s Maple Leaf Hotel. The set of four stamps also includes international rock superstar Bryan Adams and Robert Charlebois, a pioneer of French-Canadian rock.

Building on the market success of the Canadian Recording Artists series we designed two years ago (featuring Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, and Paul Anka) this set of stamps adopts the round CD-shape precedent for booklets (each artist is featured on a separate booklet cover) and the gummed souvenir sheet (popular with collectors and philatelists)—the latter also appears with dual cancellations with date of issue on the Official First Day Cover (OFDC). Booklets of pressure-sensitive stamps include envelope seals and information about the individual artists.

We also designed a set of postcards—each of these includes an additional performance image of the featured artist. We initially decided to create monochrome portraits for the artists (using a vector-conversion process based on sourced photography of dramatically varying quality levels) and then brought them all into the same dynamic visual “performance space,” a spotlit simulation of how they might appear live and on stage. As we did in the 2007 series, we incorporated a distinctive MetalFX® process of under-printed metallic inks into backgrounds and selvedge areas, adding a lustrous sheen that helps convey the feeling of shiny vinyl and “gold album” prestige.

These limited edition stamps will be available through post offices across the country as of 2 July 2009, can be ordered online by following the links at Canada Post’s website www.canadapost.ca, or by calling toll-free: 1-800-565-4362 (Canada and the United States), or 902-863-6550 (from other countries). Read the feature article published in Canada’s Stamp Details (Vol. XVIII No. 3; July to September 2009) here.

For more information about the stamps’ design, please contact Robert L. Peters, FGDC at Circle: +1 204 943 3693.

Images: the round souvenir sheet; the four postcards, each featuring an enlarged stamp/portrait; the OFDC with dual cancellations.

Winnipeg, Canada

The North West Company (NWC) today held its Annual and Special Meeting of Unitholders at the Winnipeg Convention Centre—President & CEO Edward S. Kennedy was happy to announce the Company’s ninth consecutive year of achieving record sales and earnings (no small feat, given the global economic downturn in the past year).

We were once again pleased to design NWC’s annual report (the 16th consecutive year we have done so), and this year we were also involved in producing a Flash version of the report (viewable online here—high speed connection required). The design approach for NWC’s 2008 Summary Annual Report fleshed out the theme of “sustainable growth” and uses the Company’s major retail banners to convey the story: “favourable industry fundamentals; remote market expertise; an enterprising culture; community-centred retailing; and opportunity in new markets.” You can view an online PDF (2.4 MB) of the 2008 Annual Report here.

Images: The front cover and several interior spreads from the report; principal photography by Ian McCausland; additonal photography by Chris Arend (Alaska) and Herman Crisostomo (Guam); editorial/writing services by Blunn & Company Inc.

São Paulo, Brazil

Our co-design worldwide partners at Oz Design are celebrating their 30th Anniversary, replete with a move into new offices… here’s a congratulatory toast to our talented southern friends from the great white north…

Cheers!