Howard Brown designs Dickens stamps for Royal Mail
Independent stamp designer Howard Brown has designed a set of stamps commemorating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth year using illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clarke.
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
The set of six stamps, released tomorrow, captures characters from novels including Oliver Twist and The Pickwick papers.
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
Jospeh Clayton Clarke, also known as Kyd, who worked predominantly in the nineteenth century, was an illustrator, designer of cigarette cards and postcards.
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
Illustrations used for the stamps are taken from his study Character Sketches from Charles Dickens (1890).
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
A miniature sheet of four stamps based on original illustrations by artist Hablot Knight Browne, also known as Phiz, will be released simultaneously.
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
Browne was an illustrator of books by Dickens, and for the sheet of four, his work from Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and a Tale of Two Cities has been used.
![2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/a.jpeg)
Consultancy Interabang has designed a presentation pack for the sheet of four and a first day cover pack for the set of six.
![Miniature sheet of four 1st class stamps](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/g.png)
The first day cover pack shows an ‘illustrated biography’ based around copy commissioned by the consultancy to Dickens’ great great great granddaughter and novelist Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, and new illustrations by Caroline Crunch, according to Interabang co-founder Adam Giles.
![Element from Interabang presentation pack design](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/Dickens-Vi.jpg)
A tie-up between The Royal Mail and The Royal Mint has led to a third presentation pack, also designed by Interabang, which brings together a Dickens two pound coin and the set of six stamps.
![First day cover pack designed by Interabang based on design of serialised Dickens publications](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2012/06/Dickens-V.jpg)
The illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clarke were licensed through the Bridgeman Art Library for the stamps. I did a feature on the background story behind the characters in Dec 2012. Read on our website here http://bit.ly/MIHHoQ