Philately Fridays: Australia, 1983

Four stamps celebrating equality, dignity, peace, and freedom for Commonwealth Day, 1983.

Philately Fridays: Poland, 1983

Fantastic Polish stamp from the worldwide celebration of the Year of Telecommunication.

Philately Fridays: Belgium, 1983

Here in Minneapolis, the snow is (hopefully) on its last leg, so we might as well get one more Winter-related stamp in before it's officially Spring in the Midwest. Here's a dedication to Alpine mountaineering in the form of a gorgeous watercolor painting.

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Philately Fridays: United States, 1983

Wait, this blog doesn't count as private use, right?

Philately Fridays: United States, 1983

Designed by the legendary Saul Bass*, this couldn't be any more 1983 if it tried. Reminds me of TRON and Marble Madness... but also Joy Division.

* Thanks to Pileup reader Blair Thomson for the Saul Bass credit ID on this one!

Philately Fridays: Australia, 1983

I think we need a little peace and harmony right about now.

Philately Fridays: German Democratic Republic, 1983

Philately Fridays: Germany, 1983

Two stamps from Germany all about SPORTS! No idea why the illustrator got all wavy with everything, but it works for me.

Philately Fridays: Laos, 1983

4 stamps from a 6-stamp set from Laos, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the inaugural hot air balloon flight in Paris, 1783. This illustration style isn't really common in Laos, so I'm wondering if the artist was French. If anyone has any information on these stamps, please send it on over!

Hlava Rezatá, Noha Strakatá

Super shoutout to my designer / drummer / film enthusiast friend Sam Smith (Sam's Myth) for putting me up on this incredible children's book from the Czech Republic. He came across a copy in Japan and showed it to me when we were nerding out over design books during Thanksgiving break. This book, written by Vera Provazníková and illustrated by Jan Kubícek, was released in 1983 but has a distinct early '70s feel to it. Maybe it's because they weren't able to easily keep up with new design trends in the rest of the world or maybe it's because they loved these styles, but alot of Eastern European designers held onto the popular design and illustration styles from the early 1970s all throughout the '80s and I don't have a problem with that at all.

OK, now sit back and enjoy just a few samples from this great book:

Philately Fridays: Cuba, 1983

Here is a quartet of stamps commemorating the 1983 Pan American Games, which apparently were played while on LSD.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler

Everyone in Minneapolis right now is bummed the Vikings lost to the Saints last night and is probably bummed about New Orleans in general, so I want to share this poster to celebrate one of my favorite cities in the world. My dad grew up in the Crescent City, so I got to spend a lot of time there as a child, even living there for a year when I was 4 years old. It's impossible to visit New Orleans and not get mesmerized by the music, food, and people. I found this poster at my grandparents' house about two years ago. Fortunately their house was unharmed by the hurricane and I was able to pull all sorts of old magazines and books from there, several of which I've already shared on the blog.

This poster, illustrated by the ungoogleable artist Gayle Grout in 1983, really captures alot of what I love about New Orleans. Have a look around...


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Philately Fridays: USA Olympics, 1983

Well, my pacing for this week worked out pretty nicely, If you've been paying attention, we've been moving through the art of the Olympics, one event every day in chronological order. This means we're up to 1984 today and it just so happens that I've got a great stash of Olympic stamps to share today. I really love this series of watercolor illustrations the US postal service released in 1983, in anticipation of the '84 games. They went above and beyond the call of duty with a HUGE set of different stamps, postcards, and envelopes. What I'm showing here is just a taste of the entire series. Does anyone know who the artist is here?

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Philately Fridays: Tunisia, 1983

Psychedelic mayhem designed for the Tunisian Red Crescent in 1983. Wow.

As Seen Online: HBO on-air graphics

As a young buck who spent a lot of time watching television in the early 1980s, I was always fascinated with the HBO intro... you know... the camera flying over the city and the giant chrome letters rising up and then turning into a neon space station. I found a bunch of earlier renditions of HBO's station identification animations which are also worth checking out, so here they are:

1978, quick animation. very hot rainbow stripe logo:



Late 1980, total Great Space Coaster style:



Late 1981, art deco disco laser style:



The main attraction:



Can't forget the April Fool's edition:





and now, one of the freshest things I've ever seen on Youtube, a stunning behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the infamous 1983 HBO "city" intro. Hold onto your hats...

Philately Fridays: Cuba 1983

This stamp was issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Cuba's Rebel Radio, a station started by Che Guevara (obviously pictured on the stamp) to provide music and news during the Cuban Revolution. Beautiful, simple, and brightly-colored design, very characteristic of many designs coming out of Cuba during this era.