Poster, Postage 29 cents, Crane 4 cents...U.S. Postage Multiples by Ten...Buy Crane

This poster was designed by Bill Anton and Steff Geissbühler, partners in the firm of Chermayeff & Geismar, for the Massachusetts-based paper company, Crane & Company.
Anton and Geissbühler designed the poster as part of a campaign to promote Crane business papers for letterhead. According to the designers, the concept was to contrast the increasing cost of a mailing a business letter with the relatively stable price of Crane’s papers. They established this disparity by creating a field of 15 stamps, each representing a year when postage increased, over which an imprinted message in fluorescent green reads, “Postage 29¢ Crane 4¢”; the 4¢ fills the last spot in the lower right, where the 16th stamp would have appeared. Each 8½- by 11-inch stamp has perforated edges, as does the entire poster.
Anton and Geissbühler built the design on three elements: manipulating scale, reinterpreting the familiar, and pushing production techniques. By manipulating scale, from a stamp’s traditionally small size to the 8½- by 11-inch sizes featured on the poster, the designers generate surprise, impact, and a fresh perspective. The standard letterhead size in the United States is 8½- by 11-inches, which underscores the shift between the price of postage and the price of paper. Familiar, well-established American icons—the flag, a rose, Mount Rushmore—are appropriated and revived in the stamp imagery. Playing one element off against another alters our viewpoint and compels us to look and think again. This also allows the designers to focus and direct a viewer’s attention. In this case, something that owes its intimacy, in part, to scale is suddenly dramatized to reinforce the sales message: buy letterhead. The die cuts that form the perforated edges of each sheet are an impressive display of production capability and demonstrate the idea that every detail counts. The perforation also introduces a certain delicacy to the poster, which runs counter to the common idea of a poster needing to be tough and resilient to do its job.
The Anton and Geissbühler poster was the largest piece of an extensive promotional campaign for Crane. It was mailed to business firms folded in an 8½- by 11-inch clear envelope along with a miniature version of the poster on which each stamp was approximately actual size. The poster was presented in its own separate clear envelope. The promotion also incorporated a booklet designed by Geissbühler that itemized the costs of writing and sending a letter, including staff salaries, overhead, postage, and letterhead. The booklet cover was imprinted with the question “How much does it cost to send a letter?” This accompanied another piece in a small envelope imprinted with the same question, and an accordion fold-out also imprinted with the same itemized costs in order to emphasize the relatively low expense of letterhead within the total cost of mailing a letter.

Poster, Postage 29 cents, Crane 4 cents...U.S. Postage Multiples by Ten...Buy Crane; Firm: Chermayeff & Geismar Associates (United States); USA; offset lithograph on white wove paper; 111.8 x 85.7 cm (44 x 33 3/4 in.); Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2006-15-2