LAB 1

My tribute version ( try to find Sir Rowland Hill)

Original

Sir Rowland Hill

Lab 1:

My Hero is Sir Rowland Hill (3 December 1795 - 27 August 1879),  who in 1840 introduced the first adhesive postage stamp:  the Penny Black

My project is a digital drawing/redesign of the Penny Black stamp as tribute to Sir Rowland Hill and the way he revolutionized  the postal industry allowing it to have become what it is today.

I see this as "old new media" since "post" is the parent to all types of electronic textual messaging.

Interesting facts about this stamp and the postal service back then:

1) The Penny Black only ran for one year. this was because the red cancellation stamp was too hard to see on the stamp and it was easily removed, allowing for people to reuse the stamp.

2) Although the Black version of the stamp was replaced by red the image of the 15-year-old Princess Victoria ran for about 70 years.

3) A Penny Black in mint condition is now estimated to be worth between £3000 and £4000