About This Stamp
With Colorful Blooms, the U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of issuing stamps with beautiful and unique floral designs for your outgoing mail.
Artist Magrikie Berg created the abstract pink, orange, yellow, purple, and blue blossoms with watercolor and gouache, using layers of color washes and finishing with precise, detailed brushwork. After making high-resolution scans of the paintings, she digitally enhanced the artwork while keeping the luminosity of her paintings intact.
“I wanted four flowers that felt distinct from one another, each with its own personality, that would harmonize beautifully when seen together as a group,” says Berg. “Flowers and gardens have become my greatest metaphors for life. I create with the belief that beauty has the power to inspire, uplift, and heal.” For Berg, her guiding theme is both a declaration of faith and a hopeful reminder that even in desolate, dry, or uncertain places, renewal is possible. She aims to have her floral works embody that vision, inviting gentle stillness, wonder, and peace.
Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps.
The Colorful Blooms stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps in booklets of 20 and in coils of 3,000 and 10,000. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Artist
Magrikie Berg
Magrikie Berg is an internationally recognized artist who specializes in floral and botanical illustration. Using both traditional and digital media, her work reflects a love of nature and the belief that art has the power to inspire, uplift, and heal.
Berg grew up in South Africa, surrounded by scenic gardens and diverse, beautiful landscapes. From an early age, she loved painting flowers, and her creative side was nurtured by her mother, who enrolled her in pottery, calligraphy, and painting lessons. After graduating from high school, Berg left South Africa to study illustration at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Arts.
After years of working in advertising, Berg returned to her first love, painting and illustration. Past clients have included Marks & Spencer, MAC Cosmetics, Hallmark Cards, American Greetings, HarperCollins, Weldon Owen Publishing, and many others. Berg’s work has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards, and she was awarded Silver at the Global Pentawards.
Flowers and gardens have become Berg’s greatest metaphors for life. She takes inspiration from “The wilderness shall rejoice and blossom,” a passage from the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament that she considers both a declaration and a reminder that even in desolate or uncertain places, renewal is possible. For Berg, the passage speaks to the resilience of life and the promise that beauty and light will always return. She aims to have her floral works embody that vision, inviting gentle stillness, wonder, and peace.
When she's not working, Berg enjoys gardening, making pottery, and exploring forests, mountains, and coastlines.
In her first stamp project for the U.S. Postal Service, Berg created 10 designs for Frozen Treats (2018). Most recently she illustrated four floral designs for Colorful Blooms (2027).