About This Stamp
With this Priority Mail® stamp, the U.S. Postal Service® celebrates the desolate, striking beauty of the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) and its distinct desert environment.
The stamp art depicts a common scene throughout much of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, the natural habitat for the Joshua tree. An outcropping of the rounded, pile-like boulders characteristic of the region sits to the right of a large and whimsical Joshua tree.
A member of the agave family, the Joshua tree is a peculiar sight among the shrubby vegetation of the desert. Its prickly leaves grow in rounded bunches on widely branching limbs, giving the plant an otherworldly appearance. The hearty Joshua tree can grow up to 40 feet and live for more than 100 years in the harsh desert climate.
Part of a delicate ecosystem, Joshua trees serve an important role in the sustainability of life in the desert. The branches provide habitats for birds and small rodents use the tree’s spiny leaves to protect their nests. Uniquely suited to the arid conditions of the desert, the native flora and fauna thrive in an environment seen by outsiders as bleak and lifeless.
Designed by art director Greg Breeding, the stamp features a digital illustration created by Dan Cosgrove.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
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 Artist and Typographer
Dan Cosgrove
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Dan Cosgrove graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1978 with a major in graphic design. After briefly working for the National Park Service in Denver and as a designer at Cato Johnson in Cincinnati, Cosgrove moved to Chicago in 1980 and began a freelance career in digital and traditional illustration.
Cosgrove's designs have appeared in numerous ads, posters, covers, and on packaging. Recent clients include Cunard Line, Dunlop Tire, Fiat, J P Morgan Chase, Miller Brewing Company, Netflix, The New York Times, Shell Oil company, SohoPress, and The Wall Street Journal. In recognition of his work Cosgrove has received awards from Communications Arts and the Society of Illustrators (Gold Medal).
The 2008 Express Mail® and Priority Mail® stamps featuring Mount Rushmore and Hoover Dam were Cosgrove's first projects for the U.S. Postal Service. Since then, Cosgrove has illustrated 27 additional Express Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps. Recent designs include Florida Everglades (Priority Mail) (2023), Great Smoky Mountains (Priority Mail Express) (2023), Monument Valley (Priority Mail) (2022), and Palace of Fine Arts (Priority Mail Express) (2022). He also created the stamp art for USS Missouri (2019).
Cosgrove and his wife live in Clarendon Hills, Illinois.