About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service issues four postcard stamps that celebrate the beauty and history of American barns.
The artist created digital paintings of four types of iconic barns found in the rural American landscape. With differing qualities of light and color, each piece also reflects one of the four seasons: a round barn surrounded by the hazy light and warm colors of fall; a gambrel-roofed barn in summer; a forebay barn in an early spring countryside; and a Western barn on a winter’s night.
There is something about barns that appeals to almost everyone, evoking nostalgia for a lost way of life — an imagined simpler time — in even the most devoted city dweller. Barns have deep roots in American culture, reflecting the heritage of generations who worked the land.
The construction of many older barns required individuals with the skills to lay the foundation, to cut the timbers, to raise the frame, and to sheath and roof the structures. Built to last, these historic farm buildings still dot our rural landscape.
Today, there are ongoing efforts to preserve barns in America, from national and state organizations to local groups working to save specific buildings. Many barns are being maintained or adapted to continue their original purpose of housing animals and equipment and for storage. Others are finding new life as houses, offices, entertainment spaces, or even as wedding venues.
Whatever their modern function might be, historic barns represent America’s heritage. From the timber frames to the stone foundations, the materials and craftsmanship that went into constructing these barns tell the story of the importance of agriculture in building our country.
Ashley Walton designed the stamps with original artwork by Kim Johnson. Greg Breeding was the art director.
The word “POSTCARD” on the stamps indicates their usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, these stamps will always be valid for the rate printed on them.
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
Ashley Walton
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Ashley Walton graduated from the University of Virginia School of Architecture in 2008.
After beginning her career at an architectural landscape firm, Walton made a career shift and joined Journey Group, an independent design firm in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she worked for 10 years, most recently art directing magazines and annual reports.
She also worked with Journey Group President Greg Breeding on design projects for the U.S. Postal Service, including their quarterly philatelic catalog and annual stamp program. A product Walton designed in conjunction with the 2019 Ellsworth Kelly stamp issuance was featured in the Communication Arts Design Annual. The 2021 Barns four-stamp issuance was designed by Walton.
In 2020, she and her husband Tanner Schreiber-May, an environmental graphic designer, opened their own firm in Charlottesville. Hyphen Design Office, a multi-disciplinary design firm, explores and creates in all scales, everything from logos to the built environment.
Stamp Artist
Kim Johnson
As a child, Kim Johnson loved drawing. She studied at the Corcoran School of Art, from which she graduated with a degree in graphic arts.
Working at a graphic design firm, Johnson produced corporate brochures and annual reports. Not finding the creativity she was looking for, she jumped at the chance to work at an animation firm, moving from a position as a cel painter to the job of animation director. Later, Johnson opened her own animation firm, Magnet Pictures, where she directed cel animation for television commercials as well as the opening animation sequences for several TV series.
Johnson left the animation studio to follow her first love, illustration. Her clients have included Target, McDonald's, Mattel, Eli Lilly, Simon & Schuster, and The Penguin Group. While she creates her final art digitally, she still often does her original sketches with pencil on paper. The graphic quality of her artwork reflects her years of training and experience in both graphic design and animation.
Johnson lives in suburban Connecticut with her husband, two daughters, and one very noisy cockatiel.
Barns (2021) is Johnson’s first project for the U.S. Postal Service.