Richard Hutten designs a book/stamp

Product design

In celebration of the national Dutch book week, Richard Hutten has designed a stamp in the form of an 8-page book complete with a 'bonus track' 500-word story written by 2010 book week author Joost Zwagerman.

By Editor Design.nl / 15-03-2010

At the end of 2008 Royal TNT post commissioned Richard Hutten to come up with an innovative, 'never seen before' concept for a stamp.

Hutten was honoured by the request, since the Royal TNT post has held a long tradition in design: In 1911, they were one of the first companies to found a design department of which the first outcome was a stamp designed by the architect De Bazel, like Hutten also a 3D designer.

Half a year ago, TNT received the request to bring out a stamp on the occasion of the 75th book week (boekenweek in Dutch). This was, for the TNT, the occasion to combine the concept of Hutten with this request.

Hutten's design for the stamp is in the form of a 3 by 4 centimeter book, comprising 8 pages. The contents of the book was written by renowned Dutch author Joost Zwagerman who wrote this year's official 'Boekenweekgeschenk' (book week gift) - a new author is commissioned every year to write a book in celebration of the much-loved book week. Customers who purchase a Dutch-language book during book week (this year 10-20 March) will receive this specially commissioned book for free. After some hesitation, Zwagerman agreed to write the 500-word story, as a 'bonus track' complementing the book week gift. The front cover features a portrait of Zwagerman and the back cover illustrates an installation of books made in Hutten's studio featuring stacked books.

The value of the stamp is €2.20, enough to post 500 grams or for example a book. There will be 250 000 stamp-books printed.