First-class Treatment

Some of America’s greatest designers, including such mid-century legends as Raymond Loewy, Russel Wright, Norman Bel Geddes, and Donald Deskey, are being remembered this year thanks to a set of 12 U.S. first-class stamps and a related exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

The stamps, which are stylish in themselves, were designed by Derry Noyes, U.S. Postal Service art director and daughter of one of the honorees, Eliot Noyes, whose iconic IBM Selectric typewriter graces one stamp.

The stamps feature Frederick Hurten Rhead’s colorful Fiesta pitchers, Loewy’s streamlined pencil sharpener, and a sleek Normandie pitcher by Peter Müller-Munk, among other mostly curvaceous work.

Design fans that happen to be stamp collectors can buy first-day covers, stamp sets, a booklet—and can also view the entire series—at the USPS Postal Store. The Cooper-Hewitt exhibit runs through September 25 and will tour nationwide.