Typography is an essential
element of virtually every postage stamp but rarely theStar. On April 4, 2024, however, a Star was born when Czech Republic issued a stamp that does just that—highlight typography. The stamp marked the 100th birth anniversary of Jiří Rathouský (1924-2003) [right], the renowned Czech graphic designer and typographer. The stamp features a typographic image adapted from his 1960s posters 
[right] promoting the annual exhibition of members of the Association Typographique Internationale. The poster’s prominent typographic imagery represents mapping the development of the typeface.
Rathouský participated in designing the Czechoslovak pavilions at EXPO 58 in Brussels, EXPO 67 in Montreal and EXPO 70 in Osaka, leading to much deserved international recognition. He developed information design for the New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague as well as the 
typeface Metron [left] for the Prague underground transport system–his most significant commission from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Throughout his career Rathouský was heavily involved in advertising and type design (Alphapipe, Barell, Metron) as well as poster [below left] and book cover [below right] design.
Other Stamps Featuring Typographic Stars:
William Caxton ( c1422-c1491), who introduced printing to Britain in 1476, was honored with a set of four stamps in 1976 marking the 500th anniversary of the first printing press in that country. The stamps were designed by Richard Gay. One of the stamps features a page from The Tretyse of Love (The Treatise of Love), an English prose text first printed around 1493. Its printing was actually the work of Wynkyn de Worde (?-1534), who took over William Caxton’s printing business in 1491, and printed The Treatise before he began publishing under his own name in 1494. The Treatise shows two of Caxton’s types and a decorated initial. The types are Caxton No.6, based on a Flemish vernacular writing hand, and No.8, of French origin, a formal gothic hand.
Eric Gill’s (1882-1940) 
typeface Gill Sans is featured on 2004 British stamp that was part of a series marking the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Society of Arts. The stamp set was designed by Derek Birdsall in 2004.
Gill was a renowned English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer and printmaker. Two of Gill’s typefaces remain popular today: Perpetua which he designed for Stanley Morison and Gill Sans, probably the most popular.
Jan van Krimpen’s (1892-1958), the Dutch typographer, designed numerous elegant book typefaces but only three have been digitized: 
Romaneé, Haarlemmer and Spectrum.
For 35 years he worked for the
J. Enschedé & Sons printing firm where he designed books, stamps and currency for many organizations and governments. His “Numerals” stamp series for the Netherlands, though not featuring a particular typeface but rather elements of several of his typefaces, certainly represents his type design style which was influenced by the structure of classical Roman square capitals. I regard this stamps series and a typographic Star.
While not actual postage stamps, but rather a self-assigned design project by British designer and typographer Darren Scott (1975- ), this set of six “Cinderella” stamps honors notable British typographers: William Caxton, John Baskerville, Eric Gill, Stanley Morrison, Matthew Carter and Neville Brody. Scott deemed these typographers and their work worthy of being honored on postage stamps.
Scott worked for 10 years at McCann-Erickson as designer and art director before founding his own design firm, Truth Design. His first typeface design, Berlin(er), was for Neville Brody and Jon Wozencroft ’s experimental digital typography magazine FUSE (issue 15). Berlin(er) is a blackletter typeface inspired by Berlin Wall graffiti and traditional Germanic blackletter typefaces. Scott has since designed over 20 typefaces.
If you know of other typefaces where typography is the Star, please let me know in the Comments sections below. Sometime in the future I hope to post Typography on Stamps, Part 2.
