Studio A

“African Apparel” is a new exhibition catalogue we designed with Scala Publishers and The Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins in Florida. Special thanks to Ricky Altizer for a job well done!

We love working in charming, colonial-era, Old Town, Alexandria. During the holidays, many doors are decorated with wreaths in a variety of styles. Inspired by their beauty, we worked with local floral artist Laura Dowling to create a set of stamps featuring wreaths (and local doors). Issued last week, they’re available now.

Today, USPS announced several stamps to be issued in 2020. We’re extremely excited about this group commemorating Hip Hop’s contributions to our culture. It is arguably the most important US cultural export of the last 50 years. MC-ing (Rap), DJ-ing, B-Boying (sometimes called breakdancing), and Graffiti Art. We were fortunate to work with the talented Cade Martin on the photography and proud to have designed these stamps. We hope you like them and will look for their release next year.

Art directing postage stamps can be an exercise in patience. Six years ago, with help and encouragement from Helen McNiell and Carol Beehler in our office, we started working on a set of stamps featuring plants that produce berries during the winter. Steve Buchanan created the art, and Leslie Badani worked on the booklet cover. A real group effort! Yesterday, the stamps were issued and available for purchase. A long and overdue thank you everyone who helped make the Winterberry stamps!

Next week marks the 50th anniversary of “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music.” A half-million people attended the festival. Do you know someone who was there? For the rest of us, it’s a legendary event where music, cooperation, and peaceful celebration unfolded capturing the popular imagination. In designing a stamp to commemorate the event, we combined the iconic dove of the original festival with custom lettering evoking concert posters of the era. Wishing you Peace and Music!

We’ve jumped the pond! ArtUK podcast “Art Matters” broadcast an episode on the art of stamp design. Host Ferren Gipson interviews Paul Skinner of the British Library and our own Antonio Alcala (he starts at the 6-minute mark). Take a listen for the philatelic fundamentals. Photo Credit: Stamps, Lisa Milroy (b.1959),British Council Collection

Along with designing stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, we also had the good fortune to collaborate with Catalone Design Co. in creating the traveling exhibition “Destination Moon” for the Smithsonian. Including the Apollo 11 command module Columbia that returned the astronauts to the earth, the exhibit chronicles the technology, people, and historical events that made the amazing feat possible. The exhibition is currently on display in Seattle and will travel to Cincinnati afterwards.

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of astronauts first landing on the moon. We’re proud of our contribution helping commemorate this historic event with the design of two postage stamps: One shows Neil Armstrong’s famous photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon, and the other stamp marks the location on the moon where the Apollo Lunar Module touched down. May these stamps land in your mailbox soon!

We just received our advance copy of “Judy Chicago: New Views”— her first major monograph in nearly twenty years. We’re so pleased with how it turned out, and grateful we were asked to design this important examination of Chicago’s work. Well done Helen McNiell!

Sometimes the story behind a stamp’s creation never gets told. Not this time. Three years ago, Antonio traveled to Chicago for a milestone birthday celebration for his first design instructor, mentor, and friend Philip Burton. During the visit, on a walk down the famous Chicago Pier, Antonio took flag photos, thinking perhaps one might be suitable for a stamp. Today, the 2019 US Flag Stamp has been issued and features one of those photos. Every time mail goes out from Studio A now, it’s a happy reminder of that special visit.

We’re no Jeopardy Champion like Chuck Forrest, but we would have done well during last night’s game when the question to three of the answers (including the Daily Double) involved our stamps! Thanks to Deborah Eckbreth and Carlos Alcala for the alert!

Thank you to HOW Design for recognizing our design for the 2017 Smithsonian’s Annual Report among their 2019 International Design Winners. Thank you also to, Laura Hambleton, Elizabeth McNeely, Marcela Luna, Denise Arnot and the rest of our partners at the Smithsonian.

In just over a week, the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens two exhibitions presenting artists’ responses to the Vietnam War. We had the pleasure of designing a short booklet that accompanies the smaller show “Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue.” It was a true collaborative effort. Thank you Julianna White, Sara Jamshidi, Ricky Altizer, Maribel O. Gray, and Antonio Alcalá.

The Kennedy Center’s 2018 Annual Report arrived (the first to showcase their new brand)! Inside, it presents the diversity and dynamism of the art and artists featured at the Kennedy Center. It was a pleasure and honor working with their talented staff to produce the report. Here’s to an even more successful 2019!

It isn’t exactly like being Cupid, but we are excited about being a small part of mailed messages of love this year. Today the LOVE stamp we designed gets issued. Just in time for Valentine’s Day cards! May love blossom with everyone!