Close Friend

The Valentine’s Day stamps feature cute animals suited to the theme, such as cats, a dog, squirrels and swans, in soft colors. The illustrations for the Valentine’s Day stamps were made by artist Hanna-Maria Mainelakeus. She used acrylic paints and a brush on canvas to paint the originals of the stamps.

“The small size of stamps brought their own challenges to the design. I limited the detail of the images and paid particular attention to color differences and contrasts. The pictures of the stamps retain a fine painterly element, which was the goal,” says Mainelakeus.

Hanna-Maria Mainelakeus is a painter and entrepreneur who works on bespoke art, paintings, art fabrics of her own production and her own clothing brand, among other things. She has also produced large, photorealistic murals.

The graphic design of the Valentine’s Day stamps is by Paula Salviander. Close Friend is a 10-stamp sheet containing five different domestic no-value indicator stamps.