The uggliest miniature sheet ever?
Not all miniature sheets or stamps are successfull with their design. Personally I consider Finnish miniature sheet in honor of the fourfold rally champion Tommi Mäkinen as one of the worst failures in modern Finnish stamp design.
The top part of the sheet looks great, but the bottom part is truly awfull.
In fact the stamps on the sheet look pretty good if you strip them from the block (see images below).
One of the issues that’s bugging me besides failed visual entity is “hidden” advertising found on stamps and sheet. Notice the blurred text Battery on helmets? Battery is a Finland based energy drink. You can also spot logo’s of global brands like Mitsubishi, Michelin and Shell either on stamps or on sheet, some of them multiple times.
PS. Happy april fools day to all readers 
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Surely the Eurovision Song Contest sheet was uglier than this one? And Finland has a history of overcrowded images on MS and booklets – how about the 1985 banknote printing booklet, the 1996 Friendship booklet … not quite as bad as Netherlands, of course!
Hi Ian,
I’d say the beauty (or uggliness) is the eye of the beholder. I think personal opinions and interests also play a major role when it comes to issues such as this.
For example I like pretty much the 1985 banknote booklet. Most likely because it’s filled with banknotes I’ve either used or collected – ie. I have a level of personal attachment with the topic of issue. The same goes with eurovision sheet.
As for F1 or rallying, never been interested on topic besides classic/old cars. So most likely my judgement ability is somewhat biased with this case :LOL:
PS. Nice to see fellow stampboards member reading my blog.
I think it is standard to have the image of professional racers attached to companies that sponsor them. They are actually required to display. I guess the take of the Finish post was: either we don’t include a picture of the racer, or we include one with the attached sponsors. From this point of view this is not really advertisement on stamps. I doubt Mistubishi or any other company you mentioned paid anything to have their names appear in this bloc.
Hi James,
I agree this is a complex issue… Lately I read in the sport news an interesting tidbit relating to stamps… In the 1990’s Finnish Post wanted to do a stamp/sheet to tribute Keke Rosberg, the first finnish F1-champion. However, he declined as the Finnish Post was not willing to pay him a sum of 30,000 (marks I suppose) for use of his name and fame.