Royal Mail Industrial Revolutions Commemorative Products | Stamp Design |
The Industrial Revolutions special stamps and collectibles celebrate the landmark inventions and techniques of the early industrial and electrical revolutions.
The main stamps feature a cross section of pivotal inventions from the early industrial era, from the Spinning Jenny which transformed the production of textiles and paved the way for multistorey factories and mills, through to the Penydarren Locomotive which harnessed high-pressure steam to power one of the first locomotives. Purchase here.
Penydarren locomotive illustration: Andrew Davidson
With the inventions coming from a pre-photography era, engravings helped embed the subjects into a consistent, suitable style. Backgrounds contain subtle textural patterns demonstrating the types of energy and materials used to power the inventions.
The miniature sheet focuses on the electrical revolution, kick-started by Michael Faraday’s early experiments demonstrating electromagnetic induction, then harnessed and developed by inventors to create groundbreaking inventions such as the light bulb and the telegraph.
The design takes inspiration from Victorian adverts in periodicals, celebrating these breakthroughs using the expressive vintage typographic vernacular of the time.
Accompanying the stamps, a flip format prestige stamp book delves deeper into the wider impact of the industrial revolution, celebrating the objects and ephemera from the era, utilising the rich decorative style of the Victorian period.
A suite of core products explores the background to the stamp subjects with the design harnessing the ‘grand plans’ that became the blueprints for the inventions, using original plans and drawings as background texture.