“So send me a letter”
The multi award-winning designer and Luton fan, Jonathan Barnbrook, has designed a beautiful set of Bowie stamps for the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino).
Produced for the 70th anniversary of the birth of David Bowie, here’s the description regarding the 3 stamps from the AASFN page:
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The philatelic set celebrates the long and eclectic career of David Bowie, famous singer-songwriter and actor, who was born in London on the 8th January 1947. Jonathan Barnbrook, who took care of the graphic art of his last album covers, is the designer of the souvenir sheet and of the first day of issue postmark.
The first stamp shows the young Bowie as astronaut Major Tom, one of the many characters embodied by the rock star; above on the right, a black star refers to his last album, “Blackstar”.
The second value depicts an interpretation of the “Aladdin Sane” record cover highlighting the instantly recognizable Ziggy Stardust’s flash.
The third stamp shows Bowie’s profile picture that was used for both the “Low” album cover and poster of “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, above Bowie in this stamp, a crown refers to his character “The Thin White Duke” and that this issue is a celebration of one of the 20th and 21st century’s most notable creative men.
The logo, also created by Barnbrook, represents both Bowie’s name and that it is the 70th anniversary of his birth.
Values: souvenir sheet made up of 3 values of €1.60 each
Print run: 30,000 souvenir sheets
Printing: 4 colour offset, a Pantone and yellow fluorescent invisible ink by Cartor Security Printing
Perforation: 13¼ x 13 Stamp size: 30 x 40 mm
Souvenir sheet size: 140x70 mm
Designer: Jonathan Barnbrook
Photographs: M. Sukita – S. Schapiro
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The first day covers will have the special postmark, also designed by Barnbrook.
Barnbrook has kindly given us a little extra insight into the thinking behind these philatelic delights...
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“The colours were chosen to echo the 70s but also to be very modern. The Bowie logo utilises the number 70.
The first stamp relates to all of those soviet cosmonaut stamps that captured my imagination from my youth. I thought it would be fun and a fitting tribute to our hero, Major Tom, to have him on one of the stamps.
For the second design I played with the level of abstraction of Aladdin Sane, to see how one of the most recognisable record covers in the history of music can be abstracted and still recognisable. This is one of the ‘midway’ points. The Aladdin Sane flash was added on top for graphic dynamism.
Finally, the third stamp parodies the history of European stamp design by having the reigning monarch in side profile. Created because of the similar side profile on the cover of Low (which is also one of my favourite Bowie albums), and of course (as the explanatory text says), the monarch comparison is also to do with The Thin White Duke.”
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Thanks Jonathan, fantastic work. Go here for more.
#BowieBarnbrook #BarnbrookBowie #BowieStamps #SanMarinoDBstamps