Blog post

Branches of Friendship – Valentine’s Day Stamps

• Great news,info,New work 2010,Stamps
• Jan 23, 2011
• 4 Comments

Monday, January 24th, Finnish Post will release first new stamps of 2011 including miniature sheet of five Valentine’s day postage stamps, named “Ystävyyden oksalla” (Branches of friendship), designed by me.

Every year Finnish Post asks one artist to design special set of five Valentine’s day stamps. I got this job in the end of  2009 and sent the package to printing in june. Stamps were announced in october. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and therefore I could not tell anyone about this exciting job I was doing. By the way: Valentine’s day in Finland is called “Day of Friends”, it’s not only about love, but also friendship.

In the stamps there are five birds dreaming in their trees. I wanted to include a story to this stamp-sized medium. I am not the one who tells that story though, people, sender and receiver can have their own story of what birds are dreaming about.

Shape of stamps is free, it follows the outer edge of trees and birds. Not traditional squares, maybe even something that hasn’t been done before. Stamps are printed in Hexachrome that really makes colors to pop out.

I also designed First Day Cover (FDC) and postal cancellation:

In the morning of 24.1., at 7.20, I’ll be interviewed in Finnish MTV3´s morning program Huomenta Suomi (Good Morning Finland)
From 12.00 to 14.00 I’ll be signing stamps and First Day Covers at Pääpostitalo.

Stamps, First Day Covers, cards and magnets can be ordered from Posti’s web shop.