About This Stamp
During the modern era of space exploration, the planets of our solar system have been viewed with increasing clarity, thanks to the distant voyages of unmanned spacecraft and the development of ever-more powerful telescopes. With this pane of 16 stamps, the U.S. Postal Service® showcases some of the more visually compelling full-disk images of the planets obtained during this era.
Eight new colorful Forever® stamps, each shown twice, feature Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Some show the planet’s “true” color — what we might see with our own eyes if traveling through space. Others use colors to represent and visualize certain features of a planet based on imaging data. Still others use the near-infrared spectrum to show things that cannot be seen by the human eye in visible light. Verso text explains what these images reveal and identifies the spacecrafts and powerful telescopes that helped obtain them.
Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps.
Earth – Credit line: NASA
Jupiter – Credit line: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona)
Mars – Credit line: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Mercury – Credit line: NASA/The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Neptune – Credit line: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Saturn – Credit line: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Uranus – Credit line: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona)
Venus – Credit line: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
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.