Canadian designer Paul Haslip shows off new stamps featuring his designs for the lunar Year of the Rabbit, which starts on Feb 3 and marks the beginning of Spring. Zhou Zheng / Xinhua

TORONTO - Celebration, playfulness and prosperity are the three words Paul Haslip, a Canadian stamp designer, used to describe his new piece - a postage stamp to mark the coming Lunar New Year of the Rabbit.

Haslip, a native Canadian who has never visited China, said making the stamp unique was his top priority.

"This was really a challenging job," Haslip told Xinhua in an interview at his downtown office in Toronto, just one day before Canada Post issued the stamps for the Chinese Lunar New Year on Jan 7.

With red-framed glasses on his nose, Haslip, who is in his 50s, looked very fashionable. The whole office is bathed in orange-toned lights, and the atmosphere is dreamlike.

His words were echoed by Alain Leduc, Stamp Design Manager for Canada Post.

"There's the need to come up with a design that's as multi-dimensional and powerful as the previous one, but also something very different from the past stamps in the series."

Haslip said the first thing his team did was use the Internet to research traditional Chinese art forms.

"We just want to get a feel for that. We went to China Town and just walked on the street and that gave me a feeling of the Chinese community."

He picked up a piece of design draft and explained: "It all starts with this little 32 millimeters square. I thought, rather than a rabbit sitting there and looking at us, let's have this rabbit on the move."

Haslip admitted that he was thrilled by the idea of having a hopping rabbit on stamps.

"We want to be a little more playful with it, so that's one thing that makes this very unique. That was the basic raw idea; everything else was built from there."

The domestic rate commemorative stamp features a rabbit on the heels of another rabbit, creating a repeat image of rabbits that appear to be hopping across the stamp frames.

"This image was a unique way of visually connecting one stamp to the next on the domestic pane," said Haslip, also a partner at HM&E Design, the firm that designed the stamp.

"Finding a unique yet simple way of visualizing the rabbit was our starting point. While the rabbit is not as dramatic as the tiger or the snake, it does leap over obstacles."

The international stamp was inspired by traditional Chinese embroidery. The image of two rabbits chasing each other in an endless circle is based on a traditional medallion panel in front of a Chinese robe.

The stamp also uses gold foil to mimic the metallic gold thread in the embroidered design. This element also signifies that this is the year of the Metal Rabbit, which occurs every 60 years.

Haslip said that his work is not only in conjunction with Chinese traditional culture - in color consistent with the requirements of the Canada Post - but also meant to be accepted by other ethnic groups in Canada, a country known for its multiculturalism.

"I don't think it is just a Chinese work of art, I believe it is a work of art and will be accepted by the general public," said Haslip.

Canada Post has issued 5.5 million of the domestic rate stamps and 240,000 souvenir sheets.

Xinhua

(China Daily 01/30/2011 page4)