[from PostNL press materials and other sources] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Typically Dutch – Cows

Date of issue: 2 January 2024
Appearance: sheet of six stamps in six identical designs
Item number: 440163
Design: Adam Lane, Edwin van Praet and Huub van Veenhuijzen from Total Design, Amsterdam

On 2 January 2024, PostNL will issue the Typically Dutch – Cows stamp sheet. This issue is the first in the Typically Dutch series this year. The multi-year series was launched in 2020 and the 2024 edition is dedicated to the animals that we know best and that are closest to us. The six identical postage stamps will be marked ‘Nederland 1’, the denomination for items weighing up to 20g destined for the Netherlands. A sheet of ten stamps costs €6.54 [currently US$7.21].

Typically Dutch – Cows was designed by Senior Graphic Designer Adam Lane, Executive Creative Director Edwin van Praet and Concept Director Huub van Veenhuijzen from Total Design in Amsterdam. They used artificial intelligence to create a design featuring figurines in the shape of Delftware pottery. Later on this year, the Typically Dutch series will continue with the following subjects: dogs (12 February), horses (25 March), songbirds (13 May) and cats (12 August).

Cows: Cattle have long been kept by humans as pets – probably for over 10,000 years. Long-term domestication and breeding programmes have resulted in many different breeds. Cattle are descended from the aurochs, a wild bovine that became extinct in the Middle Ages. For humans, cattle farming is now one of the main sources of meat, milk and leather. Cattle terminology is as follows: a female bovine is called a cow, a male bovine is called a bull, a young bovine is called a cow calf or bull calf, a yearling is a one-year-old bovine and a heifer is a cow that has calved for the first time. Around 3.8 million cattle are registered in the Netherlands, including 1.6 million dairy cows (2022 CBS figures). The average dairy farm has 110 dairy cows and 58 female young livestock.

Delftware: The history of Delftware is closely linked to that of Chinese porcelain. Delft was one of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in Dutch)’s trading posts, with warehouses where large stocks of this porcelain were stored. Delft potters developed a type of tin-glazed earthenware that could be compared to Chinese porcelain in terms of shape, shine and decoration. Delftware became very popular within a short time and experienced its heyday between 1650 and 1750, when it had around 100 pottery factories. Today, only a few factories still produce Delftware in the traditional way, including De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles and Heinen Delfts Blauw. The traditional paintwork can be recognised by the mark on the underside of the product.

Artificial intelligence: AI relates to learning computing systems that are capable of extrapolating large amounts of data and algorithms, making decisions and choices, and coming up with interpretations. The developments in artificial intelligence are coming thick and fast. It is used in numerous applications, from face recognition on smartphones and self-driving cars to smart thermostats and deep fakes – digitally manipulated images, sounds and texts. Within AI there is a separate discipline called generative art, which is when a computer algorithm creates an original work of art or design.

Design: The stamps on the sheet depict two cows standing near each other, potrayed as figurines made from shiny Delftware pottery. The image of the two cows was created using MidJourney, an AI programme, which creates images based on textual descriptions.

Typically Dutch – Cows was designed by Total Design, an Amsterdam-based design agency which has been responsible for the Typically Dutch series since 2020. For the 2024 series, PostNL asked Total Design to elaborate on the Delftware theme by combining photography and illustration. Delftware did, in fact, end up on the stamps, albeit with a contemporary twist.

The designers “wanted to see whether we could go further than using images of vases, plates and figurines,” said Graphic Designer Adam Lane. “We were looking to create a modern twist, and that’s when we came up with the concept of working with artificial intelligence. Our AI expertise gave us some ideas, but we wanted to explore properly how it would work.”

Around 25 designers participated in a brainstorming session. “In small teams, we used the AI programme MidJourney to combine typically Dutch subjects with different decoration styles. Delftware proved to work the best, as other Dutch decorative styles were simply too unfamiliar within AI,” said Lane. “The results were magnificent – dreamlike, often surreal images of a wide variety of subjects. From ice skates, cheeses and board games such as goose game to Dutch interiors and garments… you name it. By the end of the evening, the portrait of a dog suddenly cropped up. We decided that was an interesting option and we wanted to go in that direction. Why not produce a series on the animals that are close to the hearts of the Dutch people?”

By the same token, the designers considered some lesser-known breeds of cattle, but MidJourney didn’t recognize them. Instead, they took red-pied and black-pied cattle and made blue-pied cattle.

Technical Details:
Postage stamp dimensions: 30 x 40 mm
Sheet size: 170 x 122 mm
Paper: normal with phosphor print
Glue: gummed
Printing technique: offset
Printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black
Print run: 75,000 sheets
Appearance: sheet of six stamps in identical designs
Design: Adam Lane, Edwin van Praet and Huub van Veenhuijzen from Total Design, Amsterdam
Printing company: Cartor Security Printers, Meaucé-La Loupe, France
Item number: 440163

[from PostNL press material] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Experience Nature – Birds on Bonaire

Date of issue: 2 January 2024
Format: sheet of ten stamps in ten different designs, marked with ‘1’, the denomination for post weighing up to and including 20g with destinations in the Netherlands
Item number: 440161
Design: Frank Janse, Gouda
Photography: Dreamstime and Wikimedia Commons (Charles J. Sharp, Mike’s Birds, Stephen J. Jones, Steve Wilson, Wolfartist)

On 2 January 2024, PostNL will issue the Experience Nature – Birds on Bonaire issue: a sheet of ten stamps in ten different designs. The denomination on these stamps is ‘1’, the denomination for items weighing up to 20g with destinations in the Netherlands. A sheet of ten stamps costs €10.90 [currently US$12.00). The sheet is part of the 2024-2026 Experience Nature series dedicated to the Caribbean Netherlands. Four sheets of 10 stamps will be issued each year.

The stamps depict plants and animals found in this part of the Netherlands. With thousands of species of plants and animals, the islands in this area have a biodiversity that is unprecedented by Dutch standards. 2024 will consecutively focus on the birds, butterflies, underwater life and flora on the island of Bonaire.

The stamps on this sheet are:

• the crested caracara
• red-footed booby
• mangrove warbler
• southern lapwing
• Venezuelan troupial
• Caribbean flamingo
• red ibis
• yellow-shouldered amazon
• magnificent frigatebird, and
• ruby-topaz hummingbird.

Just like Sint Eustatius and Saba, the island of Bonaire holds a separate status within the Netherlands. The collective name for these three islands is the Caribbean Netherlands. Alongside the countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, they form the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Bonaire spans almost 29,000 hectares [about 112,000 square miles], and is home to around 24,000 people, most of whom speak Papiamentu as their first language. The main sources of income are tourism and salt extraction, and the island is a popular destination for diving holidays and cruise ships.

Bonaire is home to over 200 different bird species: breeding birds, winter visitors as well as regular visitors and wanderers. The Caribbean flamingo is Bonaire’s national symbol. Its image and colours recur everywhere, right down to the name of the reddish-pink coloured Flamingo Airport. The yellow-shouldered amazon is also synonymous with Bonaire. Bonaire is one of the few places on earth where this unique species of parrot is found.

Design
The Experience Nature – Birds on Bonaire stamp sheet was designed by graphic designer Frank Janse from Gouda. On the sheet, each bird is depicted in its natural environment on its own stamp. All bird photos are incorporated in a graphic layer with circle shapes that are also visible on the sheet edge. Some images also continue onto the adjacent stamp and onto the sheet edge. In several places on the stamp sheet, the designer has added graphics derived from symbols on old topographical maps. These symbols can indicate landscape forms, contour lines, plantings, soil structures and watercourses.

At first, Janse only wanted to use photographs taken in Bonaire but “I quickly abandoned that idea. There were simply too few photos, he said. “Lots birds had been photographed in other places, so I used those photos too.” The photos were edited, blurring some of the backgrounds, and “I avoided using an image of a bird with a tree or bush visible in the background that is not found on Bonaire.”

The design also features an additional transparent layer featuring monochrome images (both white and in colour) of flora and fauna that are typical of this area. The monochrome images are almost abstract cross the perforations and connect the stamps to each other and to the sheet edge. The following plants and animals are depicted: red ibis and ceroid cactus (top left), melon cactus and yellow-shouldered amazon (top right), mangrove warbler (middle left), magnificent frigatebird (bottom right) and common lantana (bottom right and centre).

Although Janse has never been to Bonaire, he is a bird enthusiast and so he is familiar with many of the species featured on the stamps. “As a child, I found the magnificent frigatebird extremely interesting. It’s huge bird that can stay in the air for months without landing. It stands pontifically on the stamp in the left-hand corner, with its red breast puffed out and its large beak. The crested caracara is just as interesting. This falcon species is an incredibly opportunistic beast; it eats just about anything, and preferably steals food from other animals. It’s a real predator. And, of course, the hummingbird had to fly onto the stamp. It’s a clever photo that’s been taken with a very good camera. Its stance really catches your eye – it’s as if it is turning a corner mid-air.”

Other Dutch stamps designed by Janse include 2017′ bird species of the Netherlands, the Experience Nature series from 2018 to 2023, and, also in 2023, he designed the personal stamps Holland America Line’s 150th anniversary, Girl with a Pearl Earring and Inauguration of Queen Juliana, containing 24 -carat gold.

Technical Details:
Stamp size: 40 x 30mm
Sheet size: 122 x 170mm
Paper: normal with phosphor print
Glue: self-adhesive
Printing technique: offset
Printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black
Print run: 285,000 sheets
Appearance: sheet of 10 stamps in 10 different designs