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.

First one os an A4 combination of all birds. Next five are individual birds in their own trees, about A5 size, cut to keyhole shape.

Illustrator representation is new thing here in Finland. First two agencies, Napa and Pekka, started last year. Before that illustrators represented themselves. (Well, most of them still do since two companies cannot take them all under their wings.) I wanted to have agent because i want do more illustrations and less dealing with contracts and thinking about prices. Of course I hope this will bring me interesting jobs and, yes, money.

So if you want to hire me for a project, or just check out the cream of the cream of finnish illustrators, visit Napa. And hey, there’s also Napa books and gallery, gallery and shop with some nice stuff, worth visiting when in Internet or in Helsinki (Eerikinkatu 18, Helsinki).

And here’s Marjo’s contact info:

Puh. +358-50-3297655
marjo(a)napaillustrations.com

That’s me, Janne Harju, finnish illustrator and graphic designer.

And this is my website, built mostly for my little illustration gallery and information. I’ll try to keep this blog section alive too.

I hope you like the stuff here. If you do, but also if you don’t like it, please leave comments.

*** Same in Finnish:

Kuvassa on minä, kuvittaja Janne Harju. Ja tämä on sivustoni, jonka tärkein tehtävä on esitellä kuvituksiani ja yhteystietojani. Yritän myös pitää blogia tekemisistäni.

Toivottavasti pidät töistäni. Pidit tai et, ole kiltti ja kommentoi.