Northern Taiwan Stamp Collection
[Senior Capstone Project - Illustration, Package Design, Brand Identity, 2022]
Project focus:
Design a package of 7 selected locations in Northern Taiwan stamps, corresponding informational cards, and an overview introduction card.
The project focuses on the lesser-known areas and promotes their beauty and connection to Taiwan.
Where is Northern Taiwan?
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country in East Asia. Taipei is the capital city of Taiwan, located in the northern part of the country.
This project focused on Northern Taiwan, which includes Taipei City, New Taipei City, Keelung City, Yilan County, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, and Hsinchu City.
The 7 locations selected from the city/county are, in order, Beitou District, Sanzhi District, Zhongzheng District, Toucheng Township, Longtan District, Xinpu Township, and North District.
Design approach:
This project is aimed to be released as a set of a special edition of postage stamps. The target audience is the philatelists.
I designed the packaging with the simple outline of my illustrations, so when the audience opens up the package, the colorful, saturated cards and stamps reveal as a surprise. The packaging itself is simple yet compact to well-store the cards.
Introduction card: Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a beautiful country in East Asia. Taiwan can be divided into four parts — Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern Taiwan. Taiwan also has many outlying islands.
Taiwan is an island country in the North Pacific Ocean and is located on a compressive tectonic boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea Plates. Because of this, Taiwan has abundant natural resources on land and in the ocean. And because of its long colonial history, Taiwan has a diverse culture that the Taiwanese people are proud of.
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The introduction card serves as the start of the collection, the start of the journey to travel around Northern Taiwan. On the card is the introduction of Taiwan, with the illustrations I established, and Taiwan on the brief geographic location and a zoom-in Northern Taiwan map.
Location 1: Beitou District, Taipei City
Beitou is famous for its hot springs. These were created by the eruption of the Tatun Volcano Group. The culture around the hot springs was developed by the Japanese during the colonial period (1895 to 1945). The hot springs’ mineral water contains three different kinds of sulfur, which they connect to different health benefits including healing chronic skin diseases, rheumatism, muscular aches, etc.
Thermal Valley is an area that is always full of steam and smells of sulfur and is one of the most famous attractions in Beitou. There, the water is a clear jade color. The water’s temperature is usually around 80 to 100 degrees Celsius. Boiling eggs in the natural water is a common form of entertainment. Although it’s not allowed in the Thermal Valley now, hot spring resorts nearby still provide the activity for a fun experience.
Location 2: Sanzhi District, New Taipei City
Sanzhi is renowned for the numerous terraces on the hillsides in the area. Terraces are step-like landscapes that allow for more effective farming. Terraced fields decrease both erosion and surface runoff and are used to support growing crops that require irrigation such as rice. In Sanzhi, tea, water bamboo, and Chinese yam are more commonly planted because of the weather and soil.
Sanzhi is one of the places where the Taipei tree frogs still live after their habitat was reduced due to urban development. Taipei tree frogs are given the name because they were first identified and named in Taipei. They have a slender body shape, range from 3-5 cm in length, and don’t croak loudly like other species of frogs. Instead, they chirp like quiet insects. Taipei frogs are listed as a protected species in Taiwan.
Location 3: Zhongzheng District, Keelung City
Keelung is a major port city in Northern Taiwan and Zhongzheng is one of its districts. Keelung has been a historical place since the colonial period of the 1600s, a lot of military historical sites are left. Because of its geographic location, Zhongzheng also has many ports and mountains that are popular tourist places where people can visit and enjoy nature.
Zhengbin Fishing Harbor is one of Zhongzheng’s ports. It is the first modernized fishing port in Northern Taiwan and Taiwan’s first open sea fishing port. It was refurbished a few years ago with many colorful buildings and is now a hotspot for people to visit and promote Keelung tourism.
Location 4: Toucheng Township, Yilan County
Toucheng is located at the northernmost tip of Yilan County and is the earliest developed place in the county. Guishan Island, within the administrative division of Toucheng Township, is located outside of the Taiwan mainland, a little east of Yilan County. Guishan (Turtle) Island is given its name because of its distinct head and shell-like appearance. From 1977 to 2000, the island changed from a military base to a tourist destination and natural conservation area.
Guishan Island is an active volcano. Because of the sulfur hot spring gushing out from the underground, the island’s surrounding water becomes a milky color. Tourists can paddle in the milky sea and enjoy the incredible scenery. Other activities include whale watching and paragliding.
Location 5: Longtan District, Taoyuan City
Taoyuan City is the area in Taiwan with the largest population of the Hakka people, an ethnic subgroup in Taiwan. Longtan has been a historical area since the colonial period and is named after a lake in the area. Because it is located on hilly terrain, Longtan is known for its tea, rice, and signature Hakka dishes. There is also the Shimen Reservoir, Sankeng Old Street, and other recreational agricultural areas for families to visit.
The Hakka Tonghua Festival in Longtan lasts from April to May every year. White tonghua flowers are from the tung tree. When the tree blooms, strong winds cause the white flowers to drop and create the “May snow”. The flowers fall everywhere on the ground and make a pretty white path while people walk on the trails and embrace the beauty of nature.
Location 6: Xinpu Township, Hsinchu County
Xinpu was where people first settled over 200 years ago. Hakka people were the earliest people that moved into Xinpu. Because of the geographical closure of the area caused by its hilly terrain, the Hakka culture is well preserved, and the Baozhong Temple is the religious center for the entire Xinpu and the northern region.
Xinpu is famous for producing rice, pears, persimmons, and dried persimmons. From September to December, it is the persimmon harvest season. Because of the wind in Hsinchu, farmers put the persimmons in many round trays and spread them out to dry under the sunshine. This makes for a spectacular scene of hundreds of vibrant orange circles.
Location 7: North District, Hsinchu City
Hsinchu is well-known for the strong wind that blows during September of the Chinese calendar. People take advantage of the special weather and use the wind to dry their food and, most famously, rice noodles. Before the 1960s, the Nanshi area in North District was rich in producing rice, which made it an important center for rice flour production. Therefore, it later became the most famous rice production area and the earliest origin of rice noodles.
The rice noodle drying process requires strong winds. Rice noodles are placed on the bamboo racks, which are slanted on the ground and spread out one by one next to each other. Compared to other rice noodles, Hsinchu rice noodles are chewier and have a stronger rice scent. This kind of dry noodles is thinner and is mostly stir-fried with mushrooms, vegetables, and meat.
All stamps
I designed the stamps to be continuous so it creates energy when they are displayed together and expands the story from one to another.
I wanted to include the cursive Traditional Chinese characters of the locations on the cards to add a sense of local and to tie in with Taiwan more.
The introduction card contains information about Taiwan and the backside has an enlarged map of Northern Taiwan. The back of each information card has a cropped map with its main subject. After reading the information about each location, the audience can flip to the back and enjoy the bigger, details of the illustration. When they are done reading all 7 cards, they can do a little puzzle to put the cards together to form a Northern Taiwan map. The introduction card is the reference image.
On each stamp card, I designed an open-ended transparent sheet to protect the stamps from scratches or dust. At the same time, the audience can take the stamps out to take a closer look at the stamps and then put them back.
Process:
