Postvæsenet i republikken San Marino har netop frigivet tre nye frimærker, der hylder David Bowie.Deres udseende er bestemt af den engelske designer Jonathan Barnbrook, der i den grad kan sin Bowie efter at have designet hans covers til Heathen, Reality, The Next Day og senest den Grammyvindende Blackstar. Her er hans forklaringsnøgle til designet på de tre frimærker:

“The colours were chosen to echo the 70s but also to be very modern. The Bowie logo utilises the number 70.

The first stamp relates to all of those soviet cosmonaut stamps that captured my imagination from my youth. I thought it would be fun and a fitting tribute to our hero, Major Tom, to have him on one of the stamps.

For the second design I played with the level of abstraction of Aladdin Sane, to see how one of the most recognisable record covers in the history of music can be abstracted and still recognisable. This is one of the ‘midway’ points. The Aladdin Sane flash was added on top for graphic dynamism.

Finally, the third stamp parodies the history of European stamp design by having the reigning monarch in side profile. Created because of the similar side profile on the cover of Low (which is also one of my favourite Bowie albums), and of course (as the explanatory text says), the monarch comparison is also to do with The Thin White Duke.”