Matthew Carter mailing stamps
I almost walked right past a package intended for me until, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a little red stamp. “First Class” it said — only 1" x 1.5" — and unmistakably Mantinia. An envelope from Matthew Carter, surely. Immediately I inquired about its origin; he replied:
“One of the few consolations for a lifetime of toil and heartbreak in type design is getting to design one’s own stamps.”
It’s the little things in life. To take that quote somberly is to ignore Matthew’s jovial sense of humor which, like his friendly smile, is always at the ready.
“These were done long ago when I was working on Mantinia, and are a little worn by now.”
Yes they are, though no less striking. My hope that his local post office had their own set was not fulfilled but at least they haven’t gone unnoticed.
“I try to avoid having to go through the line at the post office, so the stamps come in handy. Once or twice when I have gone to the post office because something is too heavy to drop in the box, I have had compliments from the staff on my stamps.”
4 Comments on “Matthew Carter mailing stamps”
Nice.
It very much reminds me of the Calendas typeface (developed for Town & Country magazine), which has a similar swoopy 'R’ as an alternate, and also alternate letter pairs where one character is smaller, just like some of these examples.
www.calendasplus.com/
Fletch, thank you for the comment. You unintentionally solved a mystery for me. Ever since Leida’s redesign of Town & Country I’ve tried to figure out what serif he used.
You’re welcome :)
As soon as I saw Calendas and how inexpensive it was, I had to buy it!
Reading this now thanks to an always interesting Mastodon post by Nick Sherman.
Well done, André.