Stamp It Up

The new postage rate went into effect a couple of weeks ago. (I'm especially aware of this because I've been helping my Mom address some things.) With every rate increase, I'm always curious to see what new designs the U.S. Postal Service is going to release.

I love a new opportunity to "dress" my mail with a beautifully designed stamp (or stamps). Check out the newest options for a $0.44 stamp, now required to mail a first-class letter in the United States.

You can also use the older $0.42 stamp as long as you don't forget to add an additional $0.02 accompaniment. Those options also make a nice statement.

Of course, you can still create your own custom stamp for that extra special occasion.

Just My Type

I'm fascinated with design of all types, but I have a current infatuation with graphic design.

My background is in marketing and advertising, so I'm no stranger to graphic design. However, I was on the account management and strategic sides. While I was always involved with "guiding" the creative process, I was never involved in actually creating the end use materials.

When I opened my store, I quickly figured out that if I was going to even begin to do the kind of marketing that I aspired to do in the long run, I'd have to figure out how to do some of the creative execution on my own. This was (still is) a daunting task. Many of the creative software programs are not terribly easy to learn. So I started off slow. Photoshop Elements became my friend... as did lots of different fonts.

Two of my all time favorite fonts are from Emigre:

Here are some other ones from Veer that I think are quite nice, too:

Like I mentioned, I'm not a trained graphic designer, but I have been forced to learn Photoshop and Illustrator. This has led me to doing some (very minor) design. I have a few projects up my sleeve, so make sure and stay tuned to see how fonts can be applied to create beautiful things.