About This Stamp
With the release of this additional ounce stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the iconic yellow school bus and its role in ensuring that millions of children get to school and home again every day.
The stamp features a stylized illustration of a 21st century yellow school bus, in profile in front of a silhouetted schoolhouse that is more evocative of an earlier era. Just under the building’s gable roof, a clock shows 10 minutes to 8; the morning bell will ring soon.
Although vehicles dedicated to transporting children to and from school have operated since the late 19th century, it was only in 1930 that the modern, enclosed, steel school bus came into being. And it was in 1939 that “National School Bus Chrome” first became the vehicle’s standard color. That year, a group of state transportation officials and bus and paint manufacturers gathered at Columbia University’s Teachers College, in New York City, to develop safety and fabrication standards for school buses. The group tested various colors and determined that black lettering showed most legibly on yellow, especially in the dim light of dawn or dusk. Thirty-five states immediately began mandating that color, but it was not until 1974 that all states did.
Over the years, many of the original 1939 standards have changed, but not the color. Additional standards have been adopted to require a mechanical stop arm on the driver’s side of the vehicle, various amber and red flashing lights, and cross-view mirrors, all designed to halt traffic when the bus stops to take on or discharge children. Other, more recent requirements have involved equally important but less outwardly visible alterations to protect passengers in case of rollovers, collisions, and other mishaps.
About 25 million children across the United States ride a yellow bus to school every day. Besides providing reliable and safe transportation — a child is about 70 times safer riding the bus than being driven to school in a car — these buses keep millions of cars off the road, saving billions of gallons of gasoline and preventing millions of pounds of harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Yet each bus remains its own little world, where countless childhood dramas play out, friendships form and dissolve, and daydreams are dreamed as the landscape passes.
Artist Steve Wolf worked with art director Greg Breeding and designer Mike Ryan to create this stamp, which will be issued in panes of 20 and coils of 100.
The words “ADDITIONAL OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
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
Steve Wolf
Steve Wolf picked up a pencil when he was 4 and never put it down. His childhood hobby became a successful career during a journey that led him from small-town Nebraska to the big city of Austin, Texas.
After completing his education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Wolf worked as an art director and senior designer in the private sector. In February 2013, he established Steve Wolf Designs in Austin.
A designer and illustrator, Wolf creates works that convey simplicity and sophistication. His unique style blends vintage-inspired design, modern elements, and just the right amount of whimsy.
In addition to designing, he loves traveling, sports, music, and living an active lifestyle.
The 2023 School Bus additional ounce stamp is Wolf's first project for the U.S. Postal Service.