For project 4, we had to make stamps based on a location of our choosing. Since fictional locations were on the table, I chose the Citadel from Mass Effect, one of my favorite video game series.
For food, I chose Blast-Ohs, one of the only explicitly referenced foods in the Mass Effect universe. Blast-Ohs are based on the character Blasto, who is a James Bond parody character that happens to belong to the Hanar race–a species of nonviolent floating jellyfish. I wanted them to look a bit like postcards, so I added a grainy, dingy overlay to make each stamp look as if they had been through the mail. I also added a pattern displaying the year 2183, which is when humans were first allowed onto the Citadel, a 25 credit label in the upper right, and a “renegade” logo from the game’s morality system in the lower left.
For sights, I chose the Presidium on the Citadel. It’s basically the Central Park of the Citadel–simulated sky, lots of water and trees, plenty of open space. I went with a less futuristic font to make it seem more like an ideal place to be. I added the “paragon” logo in the bottom left this time, and overexposed it to match better with the background.
For industry, I chose the Keepers. They’re a race of beings that seemingly were engineered for the explicit purpose of maintaining the Citadel. They’re basically the entire industrial sector of the Citadel.
Lastly, for the history stamp, I chose a more abstract design using a “mass effect relay” logo (key elements to the story of the game) with a call to “Remember the Shepard”. During the course of the game, you play as Commander Shepard, who sacrifices themselves to save the entire universe by the end of the trilogy. In the far flung future, they are only known as “The Shepard.” I placed the paragon logo behind the relay logo because I thought they lined up nicely, and chose a yellow font to pop against the blue for the text.