Postage Stamps by Type Designers
- Jonathan Barnbrook
- Saul Bass
- Walter Baum
- Herbert Bayer
- Bo Berndal
- Axel Bertram
- Peter Bil'ak
- Max Bill
- Erik van Blokland
- Johannes Boehland
- Neville Brody
- Walter Brudi
- Bernard Brussel-Smith
- Ivan Chermayeff
- Seymour Chwast
- Johann Vincenz Cissarz
- Wim Crouwel
- Carl Dair
- Jerzy Desselberger
- S.H. de Roos
- Michael Doret
- Eduard Ege
- F.H. Ehmcke
- Hermann Eidenbenz
- Roger Excoffon
- Experimental Jetset
- Louise Fili
- Karl-Erik Forsberg
- Barnett Freedman
- Adrian Frutiger
- Eric Gill
- Milton Glaser
- Eugene Grasset
- O.H.W. Hadank
- Walter Haettenschweiler
- Rudolph de Harak
- S.L. Hartz
- Andrzej Heidrich
- Lance Hidy
- Jessica Hische
- Wolfgang Homola
- Otto Hupp
- Max Kisman
- Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens
- Jan van Krimpen
- Akke Kumlien
- Sarah Lazarevic
- Jean-Benoit Lévy
- Herb Lubalin
- Zvi Narkiss
- Gerrit Noordzij
- Peter Matthias Noordzij
- Rémy Peignot
- Friedrich Peter
- John Pistilli
- Vojtech Preissig
- David Quay
- Just van Rossum
- Alex Scholing
- Jurriaan Schrofer
- Ko Sliggers
- Erik Spiekermann
- Reynolds Stone
- Solomon Telingater
- George F. Trenholm
- Georg Trump
- Josef Tyfa
- Gerard Unger
- Henning Wagenbreth
- Min Wang
- Julian Waters
- Eva Wilsson
- Bonne Zabolotney
- Stacey Zabolotney
- Hermann Zapf
Related Materials by Type Designers
- Herbert Bayer
- Peter Behrens
- Nicholas Benson
- Lucian Bernhard
- Erik van Blokland
- Matthew Carter
- Warren Chappell
- Thomas Maitland Cleland
- Tony Di Spigna
- Maria Doreuli
- W.A. Dwiggins
- Andreas Engelbreckt
- Louise Fili
- Dave Foster
- Scott Fuller
- Thomas Gabriel
- Kimya Gandhi
- Milton Glaser
- Cyrus Highsmith
- Jessica Hische
- Michael Hochleitner
- Rob Keller
- Ben Kiel
- Bruce Rogers
- David Jonathan Ross
- Rudolph Ruzicka
- George Salter
- Florian Schick
- Georg Schober
- Nick Sherman
- Nina Stössinger
- Jan Tschichold
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.
- Alexander S. Lawson Archive
- Michael and Winifred Bixler
- Balázs Boros
- Stephen Coles
- Cedar Creek Press
- Doug Clouse
- Niko Courtelis
- Pamela S. Ecker
- Editorial Verdehalago
- Iain Follett
- Greg Gazdowicz
- Laura Glazer
- Graphic Union Press
- Adam Hahn
- Hand Papermaking
- Florian Hardwig
- Lance Hidy
- Horton Tank Graphics
- Ithaca Typothetae
- Bruce L. Johnson
- Bruce Kennett
- Ariel Kotker
- Sara Krohn
- Alyson Kuhn
- Indra Kupferschmid
- David Lemon
- Letter Writers Alliance
- Angela Liguori
- Lone Oak Press
- Jerry Manning
- David B. Marshall
- SNEAB
- nt_mcdonald
- Northern Block Ltd
- Pod
- Jane Potrykus
- Tânia Junceiro Raposo
- Dean Robino
- David Jonathan Ross
- Shackman Press
- Paul Shaw
- Nick Sherman
- Sherwin Beach Press
- David Shields
- SooHyen Park
- Sun Hill Press
- Peiran Tan
- Veatchs Arts of the Book
- Richard Wagener
- Warwick Press
- Dyana Weissman
- Wild Carrot Letterpress
- Willie Miller WMUD
- Wing & the Wheel Press
- Mollie Zanoni
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 Noordzij, Milton 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.