Ahoy, Alphabetilatelists!

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It all started with a "Wouldn't it be fun if ..."

And so Alphabetilately was born. The brainchild of Bill Senkus, in collaboration with Alyson Kuhn, this project features a collection of alphabet stamps where each stands for some aspect of the collecting of stamps or the sending of snail mail. 26 designers in the San Francisco Bay Area were assigned an alphabet each, and asked to design a stamp based on their interpretations of definitions and examples provided to them.

Currently showing at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
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I'm partial to alphabets and stamps, but I'm doubly excited that the exhibition made it to the Smithsonian because my dear pt was one of the 26 designers. His stamp... drumroll here... is the letter E. E is for EFO's.

EFO's? That, in printer languge, would be "Errors, Freaks, and Oddities", i.e. misprints, misperfs and other production blunders. Perforations shouldn't run down the middle of the design; grass shouldn't be blue; 2-cent stamps shouldn't say "5 cents" etc.

Even though this project was conceived more than 10 years ago, I still think the designs are still beautiful and relevant.

Update: for those in the Bay Area, Alyson Kuhn will be giving a talk about the AIGA SF philatelic alphabet project on Sunday afternoon, June 7, at 2 pm at The McCune Collection in Vallejo.