In Canada, the post office is trying to combat the gloom of the epidemic and bring a little joy when it passes delivery trucks of psychedelic colors.
In 28 cities across the country, a fleet of 37 multi-colored delivery vehicles hit the road every day over the past few months, bringing mail, parcels and smiles from door to door.
Each is decked out with a big sun and a picture of a traditional Canada Post Truck in blue, white and red riding a rainbow, hitting “Thanks Merci!” In uppercase.
The designer of the design, Andrew Lewis, explains, “I wondered what would be fun and joyful and what would affect people” after long months of containment due to the pandemic.
“I understood that people were going crazy from isolation in their homes, without their usual social contacts,” he told AFP.
The fictional artist considers his success in convincing the state-owned Canada Post to be an almost feat to “do so” with a portion of its fleet.
“No postal service in the world has ever done such a thing,” he rejoices, of “a far-fetched idea.”
‘People need colors’
The final design was submitted in September and three months later the cheerful-colored trucks appeared in cities and countryside across the country.
The jubilant message carriers immediately posted the photos on Instagram.
Andrew Lewis says his postman knocked on his door one morning to tell him he “thought he was cool.”
The idea was born out of a new stamp that the postal service wanted to introduce “to express its gratitude and gratitude” to its 64,000 employees, in the face of a massive increase in the number of parcels since the start of the epidemic, according to the CEO. From the Canada Post, Doug Ettinger.
Thus, more than 1 million parcels were delivered daily for 181 consecutive days last year, compared to 67 before Christmas in 2019.
Canada Post hired Mr. Lewis, considered one of the best poster artists in the world, to design the stamp.
The mandate quickly expanded to include other derivative products, and to “joke,” Mr. Lewis, who studies color theory at Western University in Ontario, provided a model delivery truck from Canada Post drawn with a psychedelic pattern.
To his surprise, Crown executives were delighted with his idea.
“After the year we just spent, I think people need color,” he says.
“Alcohol scholar. Twitter lover. Zombieaholic. Hipster-friendly coffee fanatic.”