Success Stories

Client: Australia Post

Disegno accorded the Designers’ Choice Award
Favourite Stamp Issue in 2009

December 09
Design
Award

Australian Antarctic Territory — South Magnetic Pole 1909 — 2009

2009 saw the centenary of the 1907—09 British Antarctic Expedition (BAE) under Ernest Shackleton, attempting to reach the South Geographic Pole. This expedition to the coldest, driest, windiest place on earth was an imperial and nationalist endeavour, undertaken in the “heroic era” of polar exploration.

Although Shackleton fell just 100 miles short of his goal, it was a party of three men, including Australian geologists Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson, that successfully journeyed to the South Magnetic Pole. The stamp issue commemorates this feat accomplished on 15 January 1909.

The aim of the design concept is to tell the story of the expedition through the use of actual historical photography, whilst also exploring a sub-theme of 'transportation' across the stamps and minisheet.