Guernsey Post came to us about creating a set of stamps to commemorate the life and works of Beatrix Potter.

Now this is the sort of project that designers tend to get very excited about and we were no different. Beatrix Potter was a truly incredible illustrator, both of her books and her botanical paintings so paying homage to such a visual virtuoso was always going to be a challenge.

Add to that the fact that we had to be very careful to steer away from a style or typography that replicated her books in anyway due to stringent copyright infringement laws held by the publisher Penguin Books, yet still maintain the essence of her work, and you begin to see the challenge we were facing.

The research element of a project like this is crucial. It allows the designer to gather a mental picture based around the facts of the subject. For example, the first stamp composition that we came up with, that which inspired the whole concept, was the 40p stamp of Beatrix walking down the road towards her village of Near Sawry. We imagined her returning to the village after one of her inspiring walks in the Lake District and illustrated this with the rabbit looking up from the grass below the sign-post.

Jay and Sam worked many long our both researching the material and illustrating this set and we are really happy with how they have turned out. Hopefully Beatrix would have approved.