The United Nations postal administration is to issue new postage stamps and a souvenir card to celebrate International Jazz Day next month. The stamp designer Sergio Baradat says he approached the project as a “multi-faceted piece of art where each stamp is a collage onto itself, in tandem with the other pieces to create one large composition.” Inspired by what the designer calls “the abstraction that is Jazz” Baradat is quoted as saying that he wanted to give the designs “atmosphere and a sense of sound through colour” and listened to Chet Baker, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington to seek suitable inspiration.

International Jazz Day, organised by UNESCO, is on 30 April. The stamps are issued in Euros (70 cents, above left); Swiss Francs (one Swiss Franc, above centre); and US dollars (49 cents, above right).