Cherry Blossom Stamp and Its Pasadena Artist Honored

The Cherry Blossom Centennial 45-cent Forever commemorative stamp illustrated by Pasadena Artist Paul Rogers was launched Saturday at a First-Day-of-Issue Ceremony held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. with Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki and the artist himself in attendance.

The ceremony commemorated the centennial of the gift of more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees from the city of Tokyo to Washington, D.C. The stamps memorialize this gift honoring the friendship between the United States and Japan, and celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations.

Artist Paul Roger, a graduate from Art Center College of Design in 1980, is a free-lance illustrator and designer whose works have garnered awards from bodies such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Illustrators in New York, Communication Arts, Graphis, Poster, and Print. He is also a member of the Illustration faculty at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

The stamp design is made up of two stamps forming the left and right halves of a panoramic view of the fully-bloomed cherry trees around Washington’s Tidal Basin.

“The format is ‘se-tenant,’ a design that runs an image over two stamps, and it seemed like the obvious solution was a panorama of the DC tidal basin ringed with trees in bloom,” said Rogers of the design in his website. “I did some research into past stamps and found a nice series from the 1960s called Beautification of America, and felt that a classic approach like that would be best,” he added.

The result is a gorgeous panoramic print that is both modern with its sharp contrasts and timeless with its classic design.

In attendance were Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, Stamp Designer Phil Jordan of Falls Church, VA, Stamp Artist Paul Rogers of Pasadena, CA, 2011 Cherry Blossom Queen Allison Speaker, and National Cherry Blossom Festival Executive Director Diana Mahew.