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Philatel: Stamp Design History
WebResearch 2024
For this project, I designed and coded an online archive documenting stamps from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. By organizing the stamps into distinct collections, some of which predetermined, alongside their history, this project aims to recontextualize stamps as art objects, bringing to viewers' attention the rich visual history of philately.
To begin this project I gathered references and layed out my initial design in Adobe Illustrator. I then took these ideas to Figma to produce a sitemap and wireframe. I then moved on to sourcing the desired content: this required me to find and catalog each individual stamp and its known history, then clean up each image for presentation. I then chose to set these stamps upon a black background to draw the viewer's attention to the stamp alone. Once these elements were gathered, and the design document completed, I began coding my webpage.
Central to this project was my personal exploration of HTML and CSS. To exercise this, I designed each distinct page as an example of HTML transitions, all of which related to the presentation or subject matter of the stamps on display. This interactivity continues throughout the website, as the image scale activated on hover enables navigation that is both playful and informative.