Saturday 17 January 2009

Royal Mail - British Design Classics Stamps

Cool Britannia (as was)

Royal Mail Stamps: British Design Classics of the 20th century.
Available from 13th January 2009, Royal Mail release 10 stamps featuring classic British designs.
While stocks last, all our personalised greeting cards will carry any one of these gloriously nostalgic designs:
























"The first-class stamps include 10 different images by 20th Century designers.

Also among them is Mary Quant's daring mini-skirt, the London Underground map by Harry Beck and Sir Archibald Russell's Concorde.

Penguin's instantly recognisable book jacket designed by Edward Young and the Supermarine Spitfire of RJ Mitchell also feature in the set of stamps.

The Design Classics series will be on sale for a year.

Speaking at the launch of the stamps in Carnaby Street, London, mini-skirt designer Mary Quant said: "I am hugely flattered and simply bowled over with delight.

"I think the mini-skirt is something that makes one feel happy and enjoy life.

"I love all the other symbols but I particularly also like the other designers being celebrated today at the same time."

Julietta Edgar, head of special stamps at Royal Mail, said: "The starting point for us was the 50th anniversary of the Mini, and we decided to broaden it beyond the Mini to other design classics.

"We got a number of experts in the field to identify the design classics that we settled on.

"We also looked at the BBC culture programme on design classics to see what was making their top 10 and top 20.

"It was an interesting debate. We wanted to make sure that we got a mixture of different types of design so that we had different representations of where the British had made an impact.

"My favourite is the Mini car. It's such a beautiful design and it's one of those cars I aspire to owning one day."

Sky News: Royal Mail Honours British Design
Guardian: Designs that take some licking
Royal Mail: British Design Classics