About This Stamp
Issued on November 22, 1968, at the National Postage Stamp Show in the Exposition Rotunda of Madison Square Garden in New York City, this 20-cent airmail stamp was designed by John Larrecq, a book illustrator and graphic designer active during the 1960s and 1970s. It is the only U.S. postage stamp design credited to him. The issue replaced the 1967 20-cent airmail featuring Audubon’s Columbia Jays. Its denomination paid the half-ounce airmail rate for letters to Europe and North Africa.
Larrecq’s design reflected the bold, minimalist aesthetic of late-1960s American corporate graphics, echoing contemporary airline logos for carriers such as United, American, and Continental. The silhouette of a jet airliner — used frequently on U.S. airmail stamps between 1958 and 1980 — was based on the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, the dominant long-haul jetliners of the era. Both had four under-wing turbojet engines, swept wings, and rounded nosecones. The lettering in open-face Gothic capitals was a popular graphic device of the late 1960s, when it was considered modern and “high-tech” in appearance.
The black elements of the stamp (plane, denomination, and lettering) were engraved by Howard F. Sharpless of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and printed on the Giori press, while the multicolored striped “USA” was added by offset lithography. The use of dual printing processes often resulted in visible misregistration between the elements.
The same design was reissued in 1971 with modified colors and a new denomination of 21 cents to meet the increased airmail rate.