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| 5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. 604-684-4613 |
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Canada Post launches 2010 Olympic stamps in Vancouver |
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Enlivened by the antics of several dozen grade 1 students from Grandview Elementary a large throng packed the lobby of the Main Post Office in downtown Vancouver today to witness the launch of the 2010 Olympic stamp sets. Brief speaches were made by John Furlong, head of the Vancouver Organizing committee, Moya Greene, President and CEO of Canada Post and The Honourable Rob Merrifield, Minister of State (Transport) and Member of Parliament. |
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| Also in attendance were athletes from the Canada Post Freestyle Ski Team: Vincent Marquis and Warren Tanner. | ||||
 The stamps were designed by the local firm of Signals Design Group. John Belisle, their Associate Creative Director, calls it “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” adding: “To be selected to design the Olympic sports stamps was an amazing honour. And the stamps reflect the excitement and energy that we feel about hosting this world-class event in Vancouver.”
Signals has been designing stamps for Canada Post for more than 25 years, under the direction of Principal |
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| and Creative Director, Kosta Tsetsekas. Most recently, John and Kosta created the Lunar Year of the Pig and Canadian stars in Hollywood stamp series. | ||||
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| Three sets of stamps were then unveiled. The first set represents the sports at the Games. The stamps issued to mark this upcoming event feature athletes in action, with a strong emphasis on movement.
“We were inspired by Olympic imagery of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the highly romanticized silk-screened posters of the era,” explains John Belisle, Creative Director of Signals Design Group in Vancouver. “We started with basic sketches of athletes in action and, to give the design a contemporary spin, we layered the images.” These layers of transparencies capture the movement of the athletes. Belisle adds, âWeâve carried this sense of motion onto the souvenir sheet, where weâve created movement by winding the pattern of the Vancouver 2010 colour scheme.â Blues and whites worked into the stamp designs convey the feeling of snow and ice. Five sports are represented in this series. (The image of the souvenir sheet above and the 5 images below are courtesy of Signals Design Group). |
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 Bobsleigh—Though sleds have been used for centuries as a mode of transportation, bobsledding was not born until the late 19th century, when the Swiss attached a steering mechanism to a toboggan. In 1924, a four-man bobsleigh race took place at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, France. |
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 Curling—Though Canada is recognized as the major home of curling today, the game was actually developed in Scotland. It was included in the program of the first Olympic Winter Games and, after a lengthy absence, made its way back into the official Olympic program for the 1998 Nagano Games. |
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 Freestyle skiing—Freestyle skiing involves aerial manoeuvres performed while skiing downhill. Moguls were added to the official program of the Albertville Olympic Winter Games in 1992, and aerials made their first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games in 1994 in Lillehammer. |
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 Snowboard—Inspired by skiing, surfing and skateboarding, snowboard is an exciting addition to the Olympic winter sports family. The sport made its Olympic debut at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. |
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 Ice sledge hockey—Ice sledge hockey was invented at a rehabilitation centre in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1960s. The sport made its Paralympic debut at the Lillehammer 1994 Paralympic Winter Games. |
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| The Emblems
Two other PERMANENTTM domestic rate stamps were unveiled. One features the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter games emblem, which is a contemporary interpretation of the inukshuk, a traditional Inuit sculpture that provides guidance to travellers. |
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| The other features the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games emblem, an image that embodies the harmony between athlete, the sport and the environment. | ||||
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| The blue and green background colour schemes represent the Vancouver 2010 Sea to Sky theme, a concept linking the ocean waters of Vancouver with the tree covered slopes of Whistler. An added dash of creativity makes these stamps extra special, for the first time ever, the two different stamps will alternate on the same coil.
The Mascots Then the big surprise. Three athletes from the freestyle team and three of the childern moved to the black curtain behind the podium and on cue, flung them open and out danced the three Olympic mascots, Miga, Quatchi and Sumi with easels bearing their stamps, U.S. rate, International rate and Oversized rate. |
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 So with sporty music and dancing mascots, the event came to a close. There was heavy media coverage, so it is sure that there will be great promotion of these stamps and the games themselves.
We are only 13 months away.
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| Other Olympic related | ||||
Newsletters: Royal Canadian Mint launches ice sledge hockey quarter |
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Newsletter #162 coming soon |
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