Great Britons stamps, from Together Design

The series of ten first-class stamps feature famous Britons from fields including politics, stamps, sport, music, the arts and journalism whose significant birth anniversaries fall this year.

Together Design started work on the project around this time last year. It previously created Royal Mail’s Eminent Britons stamp series in 2009.

Among the names are actress Vivien Leigh, First World War Prime Minister David Lloyd George, composer Benjamin Britten and Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly.

The consultancy used archive portrait photographs for each of the Britons, before creating backgrounds relevant to key points in their career using illustration, collage or other photographs.

Katja Thielen, creative director at Together Design, says, ‘This is a real 20^th Century piece in the colours and feel, and it’s also very British. All the photography came from different sources so we had to create consistent colourways to make them a set.

‘The portraits had to work together, with the eye-line at the same height and with eye contact to make them engaging. We needed that consistency’.

She adds, ‘We had to pace the backgrounds right to make them look vibrant and interesting’.

Writer and journalist Nigel Fountain has written the accompanying presentation pack, which provides an overview of the lives of the Great Britons featured on the stamps.

Andrew Hammond, Royal Mail Stamps spokesperson, says, ‘We are delighted to be honouring some of the UK’s most distinguished figures in history through our latest Special Stamp collection.

‘We hope the stamps will serve as a lasting tribute to their memory and once again encourage people to remember their significant contribution to our Great British way of life’.