I’ve always loved the dramatic design of this 10 kopeks stamp issued in 1970 by the USSR. Using only two colours – a warm orange-brown for the two Sika Deer at the centre of the design and the surrounding border, and a cooler and darker sage green for the forest in which they inhabit – the image has the striking immediacy of a woodcut.
It was issued as part of a set of six stamps celebrating Tourism in the USSR which included many of the things one most associates with Russia – a performance of Swan Lake (6k); examples of folk art and in particular a Russian Doll (12k); the Cathedral of Vasily Blazhenny on Red Square (4k); the sculpture Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares which the Soviet Union gifted to the United Nations in 1959, as well as numerous museums (14k); and finally a woman photographer surrounded by Russian cars (16k).