Our designs for a set of Royal Mail stamps that celebrate the work of ten of the most renowned poets from the Romantic era has recently been issued.

The challenge of the brief was that the words, which were to be the main feature on the stamps, had to be represented in a basic typographic style that offered no suggestion of interpretation.

So, to add visual interest and character to the words, the type was printed letterpress on soft woven stock with extra pressure to give an exaggerated debossed impression. The proofs were then photographed with side lighting to bring out the texture and enhance the technique.

Black and white linocut illustrations by Linda Farquharson added a handcrafted quality and supported the type in a very literal way, as anything conceptual would have been a distraction.