Counting sheep

While planners and decorators are gathering horse images as the Chinese New Year approaches, nine young designers at China Post are a year ahead of the game. They've just finished a competition to create stamps for the Finnish autonomous region of Aland, an archipelago of 6,500 islands famous for an endemic breed of sheep.

"We have been thinking about putting these animals on a stamp for years, but we have a lot of themes to work with," says Henrik Lunberg, CEO of Aland Post. When his management team found out that 2015 is the Year of the Sheep in China, he says: "We thought it was an opportunity and a good combination."

Anita Haggblom, director of the Aland postal service's stamp division, says: "We wanted to produce a miniature stamp sheet that was designed, engraved and printed in China."