SEALS OF NATIONHOOD: POSTAGE STAMPS DESIGNS AS VISUAL NARRATIVES OF PAKISTAN'S IDENTITY

Abstract

This study contributes to design history, graphic design scholarship, and postcolonial visual rhetoric by examining how Pakistani postage stamps from 1947 to 2025 function as state-approved design artifacts that construct and circulate national identity. Drawing on semiotics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson), visual grammar, and critical discourse analysis (Saussure, Barthes, Peirce; Kress and van Leeuwen; Fairclough), the research analyzes a purposive corpus of stamps across four historical phases: early nation building (1947 to 1977), authoritarianism and Islamization (1977 to 1999), globalization and the digital turn (2000 to 2015), and contemporary pluralizing narratives (2016 to 2025). The analysis situates stamp production within Pakistan’s design culture, tracing a consistent visual vocabulary through which stamps reinterpret ideological claims about sovereignty, faith, progress, and unity. It identifies transitions from militarized and Islamizing imagery to more civic, humanitarian, and globally oriented design strategies, from propaganda to commemorative and heritage-based functions, and to pluralist themes of humanitarianism, education, environmental care, interfaith heritage, and women’s empowerment. By integrating semiotic, metaphorical, and multimodal approaches, the study demonstrates how form, typography, color, and composition operate as visual encodings of ideology. Across all phases, stamps function as miniature archives and design interventions that reflect and shape official discourse, binding citizens into an imagined community through recurring symbols and cohesive visual systems.