Almost every year since 2008, Iceland Post has issued four stamps dedicated to Icelandic contemporary design. These philatelic items featured a variety of subjects including industrial design, fashion, architecture, jewellery, ceramics and textile design. This time, the four stamps put landscape architecture in the spotlight. These are the final stamps in the “Icelandic Contemporary Design” stamp series.
The entire collection was designed by Icelandic designer Örn Smári Gíslason who also took the photographs featured on these stamps. In the course of fifteen years’ collaborating with Iceland Post, he has designed over a hundred stamps covering an immense variety of subjects!
This collection is a great expression of the variety Icelandic designers have succeeded in creating in their field, and giant models of the stamps were exhibited on several occasions as a part of Hönnunarmars, an annual Design Festival in Reykjavík.
The first stamp features the thermal beach in Garðabær, which was designed by Pétur Jónsson, landscape architect at Landark ehf, in 2014. The second stamp is dedicated to Brimketill – a pool in a lava field close to Grindavík. The designers Lilja Kristín Ólafsdóttir and Óskar Örn Gunnarsson created the pathway over the lava along with viewing platforms.
The third stamp features Saxhóll that is a high conical crater and a sightseeing attraction in the Snæfellsjökull National Park. Þráinn Hauksson and Jón Rafnar Benjamínsson designed a path made of metal alloys up to the crater. The trail was nominated for a number of design prizes.
The fourth item depicts Bragginn - a restaurant in Nauthólsvík close to Reykjavík University. Bragginn is housed in renovated military barracks. Design Studio Dagný Land Design designed the site using material from the original barracks, which were built in 1944-1945.
