Martin Nyirenda
1 April 2008
BotswanaPost has pledged to help the nation realise its vision to develop designers by hosting annual Stamp Design activities.
BotswanaPost public relations manager Rafifing announced on Friday that the parastatal is currently working with the Ministry of Education in a bid to engage teachers in its stamp design drive.
He said that the power of fine arts - through design - has the potential to inform the outside world that Botswana is the desired tourist destination.
Rafifing said that engaging the Ministry of Education in stamp design activities will enable the development of designers from the grass root level and thus attract more talent among the learners into the field of stamp designing.
Speaking at the Stamp Design Competition Winners Awards ceremony, he noted that future stamps would among other topics focus on the Olympics.
He said that the stamps have been designed in such a way that they celebrate the culture of Botswana, adding that it takes great creativity to incorporate all the important features such as name of country and issue, desired title images, on a single stamp.
He said that stamp designing is time consuming and needed a lot of concentration to make the final product stand out from others.
He said that through stamps societies they were able to communicate and exchange traditional and cultural ideas.
He noted that the first outreach programme was hosted in 2006 and talented designers were invited to share the techniques of the trade with local artists.
He pointed out further that so far at least two designers have been trained as instructors in stamp design.
He acknowledged the support received from the national museum in improving or modifying the designed stamps, adding: "The national museum assisted us in modifying the stamps to come up with the final product you are seeing today".
An educationist, Sheila Case commended the BotswanaPost for promoting the spirit of stamp designers among artists, adding that the Stamp Advisory Committee from the Post continues to play a significant role in nurturing the spirit of art, specifically stamp designing.
She saluted the Post for initiating art workshops and projects designed to put Botswana on the world map, adding that she is optimistic that more people will be interested in the stamp business because it fosters social interaction among stakeholders from different backgrounds.
She said that the designed stamps demonstrated excellent work by the artists because few countries could achieve that goal. BotswanaPost recognized Paul Mellenkof of the National Art Gallery for graphic design work in converting five individual images into a coherent design. Geil Kgamane was awarded for most promising new artist his work depicted a child playing with a doll, while Phillip Huebsch was awarded for outstanding single design (Baobab tree) and Tineni Kepaletswe (Donkeys in Botswana) was awarded for best set.
Andrew Jones (Donkeys in city) was awarded for outstanding choice of topic, while special mention went to Nancy Horenburg (Donkeys, Mother and baby).
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