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⏸️ STOP REDIRECT & STAY ON PAGESEALS OF NATIONHOOD: POSTAGE STAMPS DESIGNS AS VISUALNARRATIVES OF PAKISTAN'S IDENTITY | Journal of Applied Linguistics and TESOL (JALT)
Abstract
Abstract
This study contributes to design history, graphic design scholarship, and postcolonial visual rhetoricby examining how Pakistani postage stamps from 1947 to 2025 function as state-approved designartifacts that construct and circulate national identity. Drawing on semiotics, Conceptual MetaphorTheory (Lakoff and Johnson), visual grammar, and critical discourse analysis (Saussure, Barthes,Peirce; Kress and van Leeuwen; Fairclough), the research analyzes a purposive corpus of stampsacross 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 pluralizingnarratives (2016 to 2025). The analysis situates stamp production within Pakistan’s design culture,tracing a consistent visual vocabulary through which stamps reinterpret ideological claims aboutsovereignty, faith, progress, and unity. It identifies transitions from militarized and Islamizing imageryto more civic, humanitarian, and globally oriented design strategies, from propaganda tocommemorative 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, andcomposition operate as visual encodings of ideology. Across all phases, stamps function as miniaturearchives and design interventions that reflect and shape official discourse, binding citizens into animagined community through recurring symbols and cohesive visual systems.
This study contributes to design history, graphic design scholarship, and postcolonial visual rhetoricby examining how Pakistani postage stamps from 1947 to 2025 function as state-approved designartifacts that construct and circulate national identity. Drawing on semiotics, Conceptual MetaphorTheory (Lakoff and Johnson), visual grammar, and critical discourse analysis (Saussure, Barthes,Peirce; Kress and van Leeuwen; Fairclough), the research analyzes a purposive corpus of stampsacross 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 pluralizingnarratives (2016 to 2025). The analysis situates stamp production within Pakistan’s design culture,tracing a consistent visual vocabulary through which stamps reinterpret ideological claims aboutsovereignty, faith, progress, and unity. It identifies transitions from militarized and Islamizing imageryto more civic, humanitarian, and globally oriented design strategies, from propaganda tocommemorative 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, andcomposition operate as visual encodings of ideology. Across all phases, stamps function as miniaturearchives and design interventions that reflect and shape official discourse, binding citizens into animagined community through recurring symbols and cohesive visual systems.