watch TV - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1957 - 10

The Deutsche Bundespost is issuing this stamp to bring the new technology of television into the consciousness of broad sections of the population. This brand has a long history behind it. In a first call for proposals, seven artists were invited to prepare drafts. It was a series of three values ​​provided, which should treat the following topics according to the wishes of the telecommunications experts of the Deutsche Bundespost: Recording: TV camera that records a scene, television network: map of West Germany, on which the relay stations are graphically highlighted, radiation and reception : TV receiver with antenna, broadcast television tower, scene image appears on the screen. The Art Advisory Council was aware of the difficulties which such a formulation of the task for an artistically flawless design of the stamp placed so heavily on the technical contexts meant. The result of the tender confirmed these concerns. The proposals that gave television technical installations too much detail, sometimes even photographic precision, had to be eliminated from the outset because they were stripping away the very essence of their brand. The designs by Anton Stankowski were recommended for execution, which showed the desire to transpose the technical processes into the realm of the spiritual and which could be described as brand-name solutions of almost ornamental beauty. After the technical examination of these suggestions, however, only the value of 10 Pf could be recognized as ready for implementation, which showed the bright screen as the center and made clear the radiation in all directions. He was scheduled for printing. However, it had to be ascertained later that a similar motif of the same artist was already prepared as company advertising in public, which is why the execution of this trademark had to be abandoned. The experience of the first call for proposals was to be evaluated in a second call for tenders. A single brand was to be created on which the term "television" was to be expressed in a very general way, without the graphic designers involved being given special guidelines. Two designs were submitted by Prof. Walter Breker, Horst Piehler and Helmut Lortz, and five by the graphic designers Michel and Kieser and five by Karl Erwin Fuchs. In general, the result of this tender was much better than that of the first. The greater freedom given to the graphic designers produced a number of valid solutions. The proposals of Horst Piehler and the design by Karl Erwin Fuchs received a special praise and were also recognized as viable solutions by the technical experts. As an outstanding design, the work of the graphic artists Michel and Kieser was selected, which confined itself to illustrating the magical light effect of the screen with idiosyncratic graphic means. Thus it was possible to dispense with the presentation of technical relationships, which would have been a questionable effort on the stamp from the outset.