New Dutch Design: Dancing & a critical evaluation of the emissions

On September 22, 2025, the fourth and final edition of the New Dutch Design series was released. This issue, themed around dancing, naturally deserves attention in itself. However, precisely because the four issues in this quartet differ so strongly in subject matter, style, and design, it is interesting to evaluate the series as a whole. After all, it raises questions about the principle of unity of the series. Emission data: Design: Nicole Uniquole in collaboration with second-year Graphic Design students (ArtEZ Zwolle); Edition: 75.000 stamp sheets; Printing: Cartor Security Printers, Meaucé La Loupe (France) A) Evaluation of stamp design – Each dance stamp features five pairs: two two-tone and three single-tone, totaling ten different figures. – The figures are simplified: heads as circles, bodies as single-color silhouettes. – Hand-drawn, then scanned and digitally edited. According to the designer, the pairs are invisibly connected by each other's hands, creating a fluid movement – ​​as if looking at a busy dance floor. – The four sheets each have their own distinct appearance, yet form a series due to: > the same image position on the stamp and sheet margin, > a shared color palette, > consistent typography with continuous letters, > a layout of six horizontal stamps per sheet with a wide margin. Striking: Three of the four sheets feature a margin illustration; only the dance sheet has additional illustrations. According to the design team, these illustrations tell a 'daily story': from drinking coffee in the morning, to greeting, making music, and dancing in the evening. This creates a transition from individual experience to group activities. B) Communication confusion: appearance vs. content In contrast to the clear line in the previous series *Typisch Nederlands*, New Dutch Design features a striking number of stylistic breaks. It feels almost like a visual Tower of Babel: – Colored garments (3 sheets) versus highly abstracted figures (1 sheet). – Isolated images (1st & 4th sheet) versus continuous visual flows (2nd horizontal, 3rd vertical). – Dynamic, natural postures (2nd & 3rd sheet) versus static simplification (1st & 4th sheet). – Individual experience (1st sheet) versus group activities (2nd, 3rd & 4th sheet). – Unbound individuals (1st & 3rd sheet) versus connected figures (2nd & partly 4th sheet). Core question:After three educational projects, is Nicole Uniquole – with her student team from ArtEZ – still the most suitable (and low-cost) partner for PostNL to develop such emissions? C) A hodgepodge of styles The series is reminiscent of a hodgepodge: loose ideas without a clear unifying concept. Wouldn't it have been stronger to seek a common starting point beforehand? A title like New Dutch Designs (plural) would better reflect the content: a collection of contemporary approaches rather than a single coherent series. By comparison, the children's stamps of 1965 and 1976, designed using children's drawings, also resulted in a jumble of styles. There, the cause was clear – they had to work with the submissions available. But with New Dutch Design, they actually did have influence on the choices. Ready to see how Snowflake works? The New Dutch Design series displays creativity and variety but lacks a clear unifying principle. Where Typisch Nederlands offered consistency, the feeling of an experimental mix predominates here. The question remains whether this is the right direction for PostNL issues, or whether a greater balance should be sought between artistic freedom and serial unity.