Postage Stamps by Type Designers

Related Materials by Type Designers

Forthcoming Postage Stamps by Type Designers

Jaroslav Benda
Ole Bering
Ann Bessemans
Max Bittrof
David Consuegra
Ismar David
Rudolf Engel-Hardt
Zygfryd Gardzielewski
Hansje van Halem
Franz Paul Glass

Tom Hultgren
Susan Kare
Julius Klinger
H. Kubel & S. Williams
Eugen Lenz
Max Lenz
Gerhard Marggraff
Zoltán Nagy
Eriwn Poell

Jiri Rathousky
Emil Ruder
Hans Schweitzer
Jan Solpera
Eugen O. Sporer
Hugo Steiner-Prag
John Stevens
Karel Svolinsky
Lauri Toikka

Wout Trippas
Johannes Troyer
Teo Tuominen
Rostislav Vanek
Bernd Volmer
André van der Vossen
Karl Hans Walter
Peterpaul Weiss
Lance Wyman

Postage Stamps by AIGA Medalists

Related Materials by AIGA Medalists

Forthcoming Postage Stamps by AIGA Medalists

Michael Cronin
Kit Hinrichs

Corita Kent
Stanley Morison

Nancy Skolos
Bradbury Thompson

Tom Wedell
Lance Wyman

Postage Stamps by Graphic Designers That Interest Us

Related Materials by Graphic Designers That Interest Us

Forthcoming Postage Stamps by Graphic Designers That Interest Us

Irma Boom
M.C. Escher

George Giusti

Walter Nikkels

Piet Zwart

This Collection of Pages Was Made Possible With Generous Help From the Following.

An Explanation After the Fact

Although a field that is often overlooked by bibliophiles and historians of printing, typography, and graphic design, several of the most important contributors to modern book and graphic arts have made significant contributions to the design of the seemingly modest postage stamp. All of the designers listed above have considered the specific concerns of philatelic design. Eric Gill, although only responsible for three published designs, had (as one might expect) exacting and pointed opinions about stamp design, and carried out a lengthy public debate on the matter in the pages of the Times. Jan van Krimpen and his Enschedé colleague S.L. Hartz, designed hundreds of stamps for the Netherlands and her colonies. These, and the roughly 1,500 examples by the above designers, are an unexplored resource of tremendous design, lettering, and calligraphy which also provide exceptional insights into how these designers worked and solved problems.

This collection was started in 1999 after I came across the stamps of Jan Van Krimpen in A Record in Honor of His Sixtieth Birthday. There are over 1,500 stamps in the collection, and I’m pretty sure I’ve identified every stamp by anyone who has ever designed a typeface. Think there’s someone I’ve missed? Let me know.

Although I’ve catalogued all of the stamps, there are still some 600 more stamps to scan and pages to build. Care to help out with that? Why not donate $5 to the cause? By making a small contribution, we’ll be able to finish building pages for the forthcoming designers listed above. As a small token of appreciation, we’ll include a note of thanks on the page you help to make possible, and include a link from our site to yours. Want to be the first to sponsor a page that’s already built? Donate $5 to get your name and link on a page with a stamp by Hermann Zapf, Gerrit NoordzijMilton Glaser, or another of your favorite designers listed above. There are presently over 1,000 pages to choose from. Has someone already sponsored a stamp in which you are interested? That's OK. It takes a village. Donate $1 to get your name added as a co-sponsor.

Or, better yet, buy a copy of Lance Hidy’s Designing the Mentoring Stamp or Postage Stamps by AIGA Medaists or Niko Courtelis's Philatelic Atrocities or Ivan Chermayeff's Why Stamps? the first books in the Kat Ran Essays in Philatelics, a series (which we designed) which celebrates the overlooked philatelic work of our favorite designers.

Want to know even more about these stamps? We have a number of lectures—short and long—that have already been delivered to The Typophiles, The Baxter Society, Smith College, The Caxton Club, The Guild of Bookworkers, Rare Book School, The Museum of Printing, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, The Ticknor Society, the University of Kentucky, and the Society of Printers. To learn how this lecture might be given to your class or organization, contact us.

Thanks for your interest.