How do you follow a creative success? Very carefully.
For every great second act — such as The Godfather: Part II — there are dozens of failed sequels and tired knockoffs.
The challenge is no less daunting in the world of stamps, where failed efforts are actually collected. The toughest challenge can be to follow success with success. Consider the Lunar New Year series.
Originally conceived as a single stamp issue, 1992’s Happy New Year! stamp was a successful release, particularly in the often underserved Asian-American community. The stamp celebrated the Year of the Rooster in the traditional Chinese calendar.
“We thought it was a one-shot deal,” says Terry McCaffrey, manager of stamp development for the Postal Service. “But it proved to be so popular that we had to scramble.”
The stamp was released on December 30, 1992, and within two weeks, two postal offices in New York City had sold more than 300,000 stamps. Some 2 million stamps were sold in San Francisco by the end of February 1993.
The stamp featured a design by Honolulu’s Clarence Lee, who combined a cut-paper rooster with hand-drawn calligraphic characters. The success of the release ensured that the rest of the animals in the 12-year lunar cycle would be recognized with annual stamps. View the entire Lunar New Year Series.
The year of the rooster is actually tenth in the traditional cycle. So when the 12-stamp series finished, postal officials looked for a way to keep the popular topic in the public eye for two more years, before they could start the series anew on the first year of the cycle.
Releasing a pane of all 12 stamps seemed a natural step, but there was a problem: 12 stamps at 37 cents would yield a final price of $4.44. The number four is phonetically similar to the word for “death” in three Asian languages. Many hotels and hospitals across Asia even avoid using the number four in their room numbers.
Instead, postal officials decided to produce a two-sided pane yielding a price of $8.88. (The number eight is associated with prosperity in China.) The next year, postal rate changes solved the “4.44” problem, and the pane could be released as a single sheet.
In addition to the U.S. series, many other nations have released Lunar New Year stamps, all focusing on the animal celebrated that year.
To follow up the successful series in the United States, the Postal Service turned to Ethel Kessler to serve as art director. Kessler recruited artist Kam Mak to produce the 2008 artwork. Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York’s Chinatown, Mak incorporates a style that crosses both Chinese and American cultures.
For the second series, Kessler and Mak worked out an entirely new direction. After rejecting early explorations using animal imagery, they proposed a succession of cultural symbols related to celebrations of Lunar New Year. The first stamp, Year of the Rat (2008), featured rows of red lanterns often seen at Lunar New Year events.
Kessler incorporated the animal for each year by using small renderings of the paper cuts and calligraphy from the original series. “Asian cultures have such a history of honoring the past,“ Kessler says, “that using the animals from the last series made perfect sense.”
For the current release (Year of the Tiger), Mak painted a display of narcissus flowers, which he had grown himself. A narcissus that blooms on the first day of the year points to a full year of good luck.
Just as in 1992-1993, the new Celebrating Lunar New Year stamps have proven popular in Asian-American communities, as well as many others. Kessler is thrilled with the result. “When the culture you’re designing for appreciates a stamp — as well as the Postal Service, the stamp community and the design community,” she says, “then I know it’s a winner.”