Stamps are one of life's simple pleasures. Pleasing sheets of perforated paper, gummed, embossed, foiled, even scratch & sniff. With their petite brilliance your letter gets to see the world and, in a way, so do you. Here are three of our favourite collections, each specific to a certain place. Other countries with great stamps of note include the Netherlands, Great Britain, Bulgaria and New Zealand.
Israeli Stamps
Israel has a rich stamp heritage as many were designed by a small group of graphic designers, such as the Shamir Brothers and E. Weishoff, who were also famous for their posters. You can search the biggest collection right here.
Soviet Stamps
As with the aforementioned Christmas cards, the Soviet Union loved to depict industry and space exploration on their stamps, being signifiers of wealth and strength. There are many space themed stamps around from the Eastern bloc; if seeking them out, this is a good place to start.
German Stamps
In Berlin we found an album of old, mainly East German, stamps and went about scanning our favourites. They follow the Swiss style of graphics and type but also with a strong seam of beautiful illustration depicting everything from brutalist buildings to fairytales. See our collection here.
