True North designs Football Heroes stamps

The consultancy has previously worked on a number of other projects for Royal Mail, and was appointed to this project about eight months ago.

The series of 11 players features football heroes from the Home Nations England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Among the featured footballers are John Charles (Wales), Denis Law (Scotland), George Best (Northern Ireland) and Jimmy Greaves (England).

True North creative director Ady Bibby says, ‘We wanted 11 stamps to make up the team but we never intended that they would be in formation – and it’s very difficult to choose!’

The final players were selected by the Royal Mail team and experts from the National Football Museum in Manchester.

Each stamp is designed to appear as though players during their heyday from eras spanning the 1950s to the 1990s are sitting together on one team. Illustrator Andy Kinsman painted the team, and each stamp shows a head-shot of the player taken from the larger painting.

Bibby says, ‘We decided to do a team formation where they look like they’re posing for the camera, so we trawled the archives to find images of people in the same position and frame.

‘They’re all in colour and in the players are in their national kit – it was about representing them when they were at their height.’

The stamps will be available for 12 months from May this year.