About This Stamp
A 22-cent special stamp celebrating Love was issued on January 30, 1987, in San Francisco, California. The 1987 Love stamp was the first postage item designed by John Alcorn, a graphics designer in Lyme, Connecticut.
The design of the new 22-cent Love stamp, featuring a pastel-colored heart, was unveiled during a New Year's Eve celebration at the Pavilion at the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. As midnight drew near, a giant reproduction of the stamp design began its descent from the top of the Pavilion's clock tower. Beams of laser lights lit the night sky and illuminated the heart's pastel shades of yellow, orange, blue, and green. The event marked the forth consecutive unveiling of a Love stamp at that site to signal the arrival of New Year in the nation's capital.
For the sixth time, a stamp celebrated the theme of love. The first one, issued in 1973, proved so popular that the Postal Service issued subsequent Love stamps in 1982, 1984, 1985, and 1986. As with the previous Love stamps, the stamp was a special stamp, which meant it was available in larger quantities and for a longer period of time than commemorative issues.
The stamps were printed in the gravure process and issued in panes of 100.
Art Director
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.