Computer-Designed Stamps and First Day Issue Postcards

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Robert Deodaat Emile “Ootje” Oxenaar

1970

Stamps on card

Description

While developing Dutch banknotes in the late 1960s, Robert Deodaat Emile “Ootje” Oxenaar began experimenting with computer-generated line patterns to enhance both design and security. This research led to Zomerzegels, the first postage stamps in the world to incorporate computer-generated imagery, which Oxenaar made in 1970 for the Dutch postal and telecommunications service, with support from the Technical University Eindhoven and printer Joh. Enschedé & Zonen.

Oxenaar worked with the CORA I mainframe and a plotter to transform coded coordinates into precise linear structures. The five compositions—Isometric projection from circle to square, Parallel planes in a cube, Two scales, Transitional phases of concentric circles with increasing diameter, and Four spirals—were all printed as intaglio over plotter drawing on colored paper.

Despite their small size, the designs on the stamps read with clarity and precision. The lines are sharp, the geometry exact, and each composition achieves a remarkable sense of order and balance. The shapes are elegant and modern, introducing computer technology to a medium rooted in tradition and demonstrating how even the smallest canvas could be reimagined through new tools and ways of thinking.