Canada Post Christmas Stamp Collection

The award-winning London graphic designer — who is known internationally — now has three Canadian Christmas stamps on his resume. Lewis designed Canada Post’s 2019 Christmas stamps for the coming rush.

One for domestic mail depicts a reindeer against a red background with stars. Another for mail headed to the U.S. features three ballet dancers, the Sugar Plum Fairies from The Nutcracker. And the third for international mail has a partridge in a pear tree.

Lewis has previously designed stamps to raise funds for a Canada Post foundation and coins for the Royal Canadian Mint. But designing the Christmas stamps — with a printing of 13 million — is far and away the greatest honour in Lewis’s career.

“Yes, it is and I’m thrilled to bits,” said Lewis from his Wortley Village home.

“I’ve done so many big projects in my day — Broadway posters, work for banks — but this is my favourite and biggest job ever in terms of the impact it has. It’s the largest printing run Canada Post does each year. It’s beyond my imagination. I really don’t have any words to describe it.”

The image of the ballet dancers on the U.S. stamp was inspired by his daughter Andrea Valentine-Lewis, who lives in Victoria, B.C., and studied at the National Ballet School of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Joe Belanger
The London Free Press
Published Nov 15, 2019