USPS to pin on 10 new stamps Aug. 15 at Great American Stamp Show

By Charles Snee

A set of 10 United States forever stamps illustrating colorful pinback buttons featuring single words of encouragement will debut on the first day of the Aug. 15-18 Great American Stamp Show in Hartford, Conn.

Each of the new nondenominated (73¢) Pinback Buttons stamps features a single word (accompanied by an exclamation point on four of the stamps) in a distinctive typographic design by a different artist: smile (Don Clark), hello! (Tré Seals), peace (Jay Fletcher), love (Juan Carlos Pagan), fun (Gia Graham), sweet (Jeff Rogers), yes! (Ryan Feerer), cheers! (Lisa Congdon), kudos! (DKNG Studios), and happy (Gina Triplett).

Illustrated nearby is the U.S. Postal Service’s preliminary artwork for the 10 circular stamps, which will be sold in panes of 20 featuring two of each design.

“The round shape of the stamps as well as shadowing and reflection effects give the appearance of three-dimensional pinback buttons,” the USPS said in the July 11 Postal Bulletin. “The pane verso [not shown] features an illustration of a round silver button back with pin fastener repeated 20 times, one for each pinback button shown on the front of the pane.”

In a July 11 media advisory, the Postal Service said the first-day ceremony for the Pinback Buttons stamps will be held at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time in Hall AB of the Connecticut Convention Center, 100 Columbus Blvd., in Hartford.

Shibani Gambhir, USPS vice president of sales intelligence and support, will be the dedicating official.

To register for the ceremony, visit the Postal Service online. Each attendee may include up to nine additional guests, the USPS said.

“A novel medium, these buttons quickly came into popular use as advertising tools and for political campaigns,” the USPS said. “For more than 120 years, pinback buttons of various sizes have helped spread ideas and broadcast opinions on a wide variety of topics.”

“The designs and slogans adorning buttons reflect the era and values of the time in which they were created … ” according to the Postal Service. “In this way, pinback buttons become historical tools providing insight into the moods, sentiments and worldviews of people living in a particular time and place.”

Long before social media, people used pinback buttons as a means of self-expression, according to a fascinating history on the Eye on Design website.

“Social media is today’s most popular platform for self-expression, but the button preceded it as a way to tell others what was on your mind or as a tool to help spread an idea,” Eye on Design said.

Soon after their debut in 1896, pinback buttons found their way into politics.

“The [1896] presidential campaigns of William McKinley and his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, quickly embraced the button, with over two thousand unique designs produced between the June and July nominating conventions and Election Day in November,” according to Eye on Design.

Greg Breeding of Charlottesville, Va., served as designer and art director for the Pinback Buttons stamps.

Breeding shared with Linn’s Stamp News some of the challenges associated with this colorful issue.

“One of the most challenging aspects of the project was to identify the ten words for the stamps,” Breeding said. “We considered many, many other words — from those with more history to those that are trendy right now — but our hope was to choose words that were positive, encouraging, and affirming. We hope that the public can make happy use of these stamps for many occasions.”

The artists were chosen “primarily on their ability to create beautiful and fresh typography,” according to Breeding. “But we also wanted to invite a more diverse array of artists including those with stamp design experience and those who have never been involved in a stamp design project.”

Breeding was asked about the inspiration for putting the silver button back with pin faster behind each stamp on the back of the pane.

“It is always challenging to represent three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional space — especially at stamp size,” Breeding replied. “So to reinforce the idea of a pinback button, I had the idea of adding the pin fastener to complete the illusion.”

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