Royal Mail bee stamps designed to raise awareness of species

Anna Ekelund Creative has designed six stamps showing different species and Interabang has designed a mini sheet of four, which tells the story of the honey bee.

Bees Bilberry Bumblebee 400 Stamp

Anna Ekelund Creative has designed a set of six stamps which celebrates British bees and aims to educate the public about different species.

Royal Mail commissioned research, which found that although 87 % of respondents thought bees were important 53% could not name one type of bee.

Anna Ekelund was formerly one half of the consultancy Marc&Anna which disbanded in 2014. In 2013 her former consultancy designed a set of Butterfly stamps, working with illustrator Richard Lewington.

Ekelund was appointed to the bee project on the strength of this and rekindled her partnership with Lewington for the project.

“We had a shortlist of bees and plants to use and we had to think about certain species that only pollinated particular plants. Then we had to think about variations of colours and shapes, sizes of bees, whether they should be flying or not and which plants to use.

“Ultimately we wanted to raise awareness of the different species by showing bees going about their business,” says Ekelund.

She has also designed the stamp pack, first day cover and several hand stamps.

A separate mini sheet of four stamps has been designed by Interabang, which was commissioned directly by Royal Mail and celebrates honey bees.

Giles says the illustrations have a “narrative feel” and “tell the story of honeybee culture”. The style has been inspired by the language of traditional ex-libris book plates, which he says “typically use lots of garden and flora imagery”.

To give a craft feel, the title has been hand rendered and the Queen’s head has been set in a honey coloured gold.

All of the stamps go on sale today.

Bees Great yellow Bumblebee 400 StampBees Scabious Bee StampBees Large Mason Bee 400 StampBees Northern Colletes Bee 400 StampBees Potter Flower Bee 400 StampBees Scabious Bee StampBridges Pack artwork revised.inddBees Non-pict HSBees Alt HS5 Miniature sheet4 TendingYoung3 MakingHoney2 Pollination1 WaggleDance

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles