See the sea in shifting surfer stamp

New Zealand imaging company, Outer Aspect, gets in the swim of things with a commemorative mini-sheet stamp, celebrating Year of the Surf Lifesaver in Australia.

Using MotionPrint imaging technology which allows images to be played back to the human eye as the viewing angle changes, Outer Aspect was able to depict lifesavers in an inflatable rescue boat, mounting a wave over the top of a rolling sea.

Sharmila Patel, Outer Aspect's marketing executive, said that the stamp required close liaison with Australia Post and its designers to ensure the correct movements, wave sequences and overall look were executed successfully.

"The video footage provided was converted into a series of small clips and output onto specially-formatted lithographic plates then printed onto the reverse side of clear optical plastic lens," said Patel.

"A specialised coating was then put on the back to make it reflective rather than a translucent image. This was followed by the application of a specialised adhesive produced especially for the philatelic market."

"The work was finished by adding unique security features that make a bona fide stamp and die cutting to enable the stamp to be removed from the sheetlet."

The job, which marked the centenary of surf lifesaving in Australia, was also the first MotionPrint mini-sheet to be produced for Australia Post.

Despite Outer Aspect having established itself as a leader in this technology throughout the philatelic community, Patel said this job was the "most technically difficult" mini-sheet yet undertaken by Outer Aspect.

"We were required to provide motion across the whole mini-sheet, whereas prior to this we had only done MotionPrint at individual stamp size."

"It required all of our skills and through the process we hit the limits to what the printing press can achieve - the tolerances required proved to be beyond what a standard printing press can do," she said.

The Commemorative Surf Lifesaver MotionPrint stamp mini-sheet has been entered in the security printing section of this year's Pride In Print Awards.