About This Stamp
This nondenominated, nonprofit-rate stamp features an acrylic painting by Tom Engeman of a dramatic seacoast scene in the northeastern United States. The contrast of light and shadow in the painting highlights the imposing cliffs and pounding surf. The words USA and NONPROFIT ORG. are printed in white letters across the bottom of the stamp.
Intended for bulk mailings by nonprofit organizations, Seacoast is the fourth stamp in the American Scenes series. The previous issuances in this series — Butte (1995), Mountain (1996), and Wetlands (1998) — also featured Tom Engeman's artwork. The artist used blue as a unifying color base in the four stamps to suggest space and atmosphere.
Tom Engeman's many projects for the Postal Service include the Holocaust Memorial Museum stamped card (1993), Statue of Liberty stamp (1994 and 1997), Smithsonian Institution stamp (1996), H-series stamp (1998), Northeastern University stamped card (1998), Girard College stamped card (1998), and the Carlsbad Caverns National Park stamped card (2002).
Art Director
Phil Jordan
Phil Jordan grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After Army service in Alaska, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in visual communications. He worked in advertising and in design at a trade association before joining Beveridge and Associates, Inc., where he provided art direction for corporate, institutional, and government design projects. A partner in the firm, he left after 18 years to establish his own design firm where he managed projects for USAir, NASA, McGraw-Hill, IBM, and Smithsonian Books, among others. He was Design Director of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine for 15 years. His work appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications such as Graphis and Communications Arts. A past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, he was an art director for the U.S. Postal Service from 1991 to 2014. A resident of Falls Church, Virginia, he is a retired glider pilot and a member of the Skyline Soaring Club.
Stamp Artist
Tom Engeman
Nationally acclaimed artist Tom Engeman, a resident of Kensington, Maryland, is well known for his poster and stamp designs. The winner of numerous design awards, he lists among his career accomplishments being the first art director for Washingtonian magazine, designing Historic Preservation magazine, and creating posters for the Metro, Washington’s new subway system, which were stolen as soon as they went up.
Among his many designs for the U.S. Postal Service are the Liberty Bell Forever® stamp, 60 stamps for the Flags of Our Nation series that began in 2008, and eight butterfly-themed stamps, the first issued in 2010, intended for use on large greeting card envelopes and other mail of nonstandard shapes and sizes. Engeman's most recent butterfly stamp design is Colorado Hairstreak (2021).