Typophile

Postage Stamps by Type Designers

KatRanPress

I'm in the process of assembling a collection of postage stamps designed by type designers with the hope of making a Web site and publishing a series of books on the subject. Although I've acquired several hundred stamps by the following thirteen designers, I'm certain I must be missing someone. Is anyone aware of additional type designers who have designed postage stamps?

Neville Brody
Walter Brudi
S.H. De Roos
Eric Gill
S.L. Hartz
Lance Hidy
Jan van Krimpen
Erik Speikermann
Reynolds Stone
Georg Trump
Gerard Unger
Julian Waters
Hermann Zapf

Many thanks.

Michael

Adrian Frutiger designed a postcard with a (valid) stamp printed on still in use in Switzerland. But I’am pretty sure that he also designed some ›real‹ stamps.

Peter Biľak designed stamps for the Royal TPG in the Netherlands

Wim Crouwel!

I see you have Gill in your list, this might interest you…


and the stamp to which it refers…
which is on the other side of the postcard

A few years ago I spent a day at the Clark Library at UCLA which has an excellent collection of Eric Gill's drawings for stamps, coins, and paper currency. There were many lovely things—much better than the one stamp in which he did play a direct role.

Many thanks for the other references for Dutch and Swiss stamps. I've already started cataloguing the stamps by these new designers.

If I remember correctly, the documentary film about Bram de Does showed an example of a stamp that he either designed or which used his types.

The Dutch postage catalogue I have doesn't list him as a designer of any stamps—but the catalogue is from 1999, and he certainly could have worked on something for another country. I'll see what I can find. Many thanks.

Michael

jean-benoit lévy

Peter Biľak has designed stamps".

I've just found five Dutch stamps by Max Kisman.

Don't forget the stamps from WAD's Reform of the Paper Currency, issued by the fictitious Antipodes.

I seem to recall he did the design for a real stamp but I'd have to look back in my notes to see what I can find. Or you could ask Paul Shaw.

vince frost also designed some stamps here in oz.
hopefully some use.

Danish typographer and graphic designer Claus Achton Friis also made a number of stamps. The picture shows the different elements of the design: The type, the picture painted by Friis and finally the stamp on the left.

Are you going to give any of the engravers credit as well?
They too are artisans - and tend to get overlooked, and they shouldn't be.

In the U.S.A. engravers were still doing the postage masters by hand right up into the 1980s.

I'm planning to include whatever information is in the catalogues: engravers, printers, number of stamps. I'll probably skip the information about perforations and watermarks and paper, though.

Jackie, I so appreciate your comment about this!

It may not still be the case, but years ago in the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, there was a display showing some Winslow Homer pencil sketches of the Civil War, and the resulting engravings that appeared in Harper's Weekly. Homer is a «favorite son» in Maine, so one can appreciate his being made much of, and the Museum owns a number of his works. However, that does not excuse the fact that there was no mention whatsoever of the unsung engraver, the process of translation from pencil sketch to printing block, and so forth. A lost opportunity for taeching people something. End of rant.

Oh, great idea, Michael! I’m looking forward to your publication, as I’m into type and stamps.

Gerrit Noordzij did some ›postzegels‹, too—and he writes about that in his book De handen van de zeven zusters.

stamps designed by type designers
I second Jackie: Where do you draw the line? I mean, before digital typesetting and the possibility of using fonts, every tiny lettering on a stamp was kind of a type design, no?
So, I assume you’re focussing on font designers (i.e. not lettering artists/engraving legends ›only‹)? Then, Gerrit Noordzij could count himself lucky, at least having done Ruse … ;)

Geesh, there are so many of these guys (so far only men) who I didn't know about. I've been able to acquire every stamp by every designer on my initial list, and I'm both relieved and discouraged to learn that this collection is not yet complete. Please, keep them coming.

Is this any use? Dekek Birdsall designed them for the RSA's 250th anniversary. (Sorry for the bad quality image.)

Stamp with John Warnock's picture on it?

http://www.bvmi.de/hist_vi_06.htm

> a collection of postage stamps designed by type designers

Only Latin?

What have you got?

Two books have sprung from this collection: Lance Hidy's Designing the Mentoring Stamp and Eric Gill's Notes on Postage Stamps.

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