About This Stamp
With this pane of 16 Forever® stamps, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the variety of games Americans play for outdoor recreation.
The stamp pane features eight unique designs illustrating eight backyard games — badminton, bocce, cornhole, croquet, flying disc, horseshoes, tetherball, and a variation on pick-up baseball. Each design emphasizes the movement of the game pieces, giving a dynamic quality to the artwork, with a simplified style that evokes the nostalgic feeling of playing backyard games as a child.
As temperatures warm up, Americans head outside to relax and enjoy the sunshine. With a touch of strategy, a bit of luck, and a healthy dose of friendly competition, backyard games provide almost endless amusement. At the beach, in a public park, or in your own backyard, these games are a great way for children and adults to have fun while enjoying the company of friends and family.
Greg Breeding was the art director. Mike Ryan designed the stamps with original artwork by Mick Wiggins.
The Backyard Games stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. These Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.
Stamp Designer
Mike Ryan
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Mike Ryan was creatively inspired by his father, a pressman. In 2002, he graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in fine arts with a concentration in graphic design. After working as a designer at Think Design in Richmond from 2002 to 2003, he spent two years at Tradeshowdirect.com before moving to Journey Group in 2005. He served as Journey’s design director from 2007 to 2015, when he became the firm’s creative director. The U.S. Postal Service® Edgar Allen Poe Commemorative Edition booklet, which he designed was featured in the PRINT Regional Design Annual and the HOW International Design Annual. Ryan's stamp designs for the U.S. Postal Service include Have a Ball! (2017), State and County Fairs (2019), Backyard Games (2021), Ernest J. Gaines (2023), and School Bus (2023).
Stamp Artist
Mick Wiggins
An award-winning freelance illustrator, Mick Wiggins earned a B.F.A. in sculpture in 1975 from the University of South Florida. He worked as art director at the magazine PCWorld in San Francisco and later began his career in illustration. He is known as one of the early pioneers in the use of digital media.
Since 1985, Wiggins has worked in the U.S. and internationally, creating illustrations for clients that include Apple, IBM, The New York Times, Random House, Atlantic Magazine, and Penguin Publishing. His recent work includes poster illustrations for a Broadway musical, illustrations for several children's picture books, and a 45-foot mural for a flagship store in Manhattan.
Wiggins lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. In addition to his freelance work, he teaches illustration at the University of Arkansas.
His first stamp designs for the U.S. Postal Service, State and County Fairs (2019), were followed by his stamp designs for Backyard Games (2021).