Postcrossing Blog

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the work of illustrator-turned-guerrila-artist Keri Smith, author of magical books like Wreck this journal or Mess: the manual of accidents and mistakes. They’re not so much “books” as exploratory manuals, encouraging you to embark on all kinds of messy creative missions.

So when I saw the trailer for Keri's newest project, I squealed in delight! A postcard book, filled with magic adventures? :D It seemed too good to be true!

Everything is connected is a bit in the spirit of her previous books, but in a smaller, niftier format. Each postcard book has 50 thick cards, each one inviting you to a miniature project. You can do them yourself, or mail them to friends in need of an adventure!

We’re giving two postcard books away, kindly donated by Keri herself: just leave a comment below, and tell us about something small that you’ve done to cheer someone or put a smile on their face. Like sending them a surprise postcard… or baking a batch of their favourite cookies! :) We want to have the comment box filled with inspiration!

Check back on this post around this time next week for the winners (randomly picked by Paulo's number generator)!

… aaaaand it’s done!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce that postcard number 20 million (US-2449004) was sent by yenting in the USA on October 7th and registered today at 05:49 (UTC) by funfunbot in Taiwan. Hurray! :D

Both the sender and the receiver will receive a surprise gift from MOO: a pack of 20 postcards for each of them!

Myrcella was the big winner of our guessing game contest, since she correctly guessed the correct minute in which that postcard was registered – bravo! You’ve won a pack of 40 postcards (20 classic, 20 luxe) from MOO + Keri Smith's new postcard book, Everything is connected.

The other four lucky postcrossers who came the closest to the right time were Alina92, Flusz, Eleleo and iphigenia – well done! You’ll all receive a pack of 20 postcards from MOO!

Once again, thank you for continuing to send lovely postcards to strangers across the globe, and for supporting Postcrossing throughout the years. A big thank you as well to our team of volunteers, who keep the project running everyday, and of course to MOO and Keri Smith, who kindly sponsored the contest!

And now… on with the postcard sending! There are plenty of mailboxes worldwide in need of happy days! :)

You know how there’s a cycle to taste? Things that were once deemed trendy often illicit a “What was I thinking?!” reaction 20 years later…

It’s a bit like that with postcards too. There are the timeless ones of course, and then there are those which we look at now and think… interesting. The 50s, 60s and 70s seem to have been particularly fruitful in this kind of quirky specimens.

We call them “bad postcards” – but in a way, they’re also great postcards, unexplainably perfect. They’re funny, quirky and representative of something that someone once thought was beautiful – or at least important enough to be featured on a postcard.

Lon started the BAD POSTCARDS Tumblr to showcase the kitschiest postcards from his collection that he felt shouldn’t be kept in hiding. He’s been at it since April 2010, and his compendium of vintage gems is simply stunning. The themes and variations are seemingly endless, and it’s very hard to pick just a few… here are some of my favourites:

Aren’t they fascinating?

I should warn you though… the site is extremely addictive. Once you start looking at strange food or wacky tourist attractions, you probably won’t be able to stop! :D

Long live bad postcards!

PS – The 20 millionth card’s guessing game is still ongoing! Place your bet! :)

Time flies faster than a postcard with a ton of priority airmail stickers!

Postcard number 20 million might already be on the way to its destination by now… which means, it’s time to open the guessing contest once again! :D

For those who didn’t participate the last times, it goes like this: every member has a chance to bet on the day and time on which they think the postcard number 20 million will be registered. And of course, there are prizes for the best guesses!

The member who guesses the exact minute when postcard number 20 million is registered will win a pack of 40 postcards (20 classic, 20 luxe) from MOO + Keri Smith's fantastic new postcard book – which we’ll be reviewing and giving away soon.

But there’s more! If you’re not the lucky one, you could still win something: each of the 4 next best guesses (before or after the registering time) will also win a pack of 20 postcards from MOO!

Some rules: each time slot can only be chosen by one person, so the first person to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage, if you want, but only from the available time slots left. We will close the bets when there are 1,500 postcards left to postcard 20,000,000. There are some more rules, which you can see on the contest page.

So… what are you waiting for? Brush up on your math skills or roll your dices… but be fast! Slots can run out quickly! :)

PS – MOO has also created a special page for postcrossers, giving all new customers a 15% discount on their first order. A small percentage of every sale made through that page reverts towards Postcrossing – so with each pack you buy, you’re also helping the project. Win-win! :)

How do you imagine things will look like one hundred years from now? Minority Report-style interfaces? Teleportation? Universal translators? Or perhaps space colonies… It’s hard to make predictions, right?

100 years ago, French artist Villemard did just that, in a magnificent collection of postcards which Vivento brought to our attention some days ago. They provide a delightful glimpse into the imagination of our great-grandparents, and what they thought the future would look like in the year 2000. The postcards are currently owned by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, who suggests they might have been used to accompany food products, similar to Hildebrand’s chocolate packaging.

Some predictions were rather accurate, others… not so much. Take a look:

An operator would sit in its cubicle, while machines would break rocks and assemble a building.

Firemen had wings to better fight fires!

In the school, books were somehow processed in a machine (with a hand-powered crank) and then transmitted to students.

A chemical dinner – it’s funny how a meal was portrayed in a very elaborate and formal setting, even if food had been condensed into pills and could technically be swallowed in 2 seconds…

At the tailor, measurements would be mechanically taken, and a machine would then produce a suit from rolls of fabric.

Interestingly, some things weren’t going to to change all that much in Villemard’s imagination… like fashion sense! :)

The collection consists of 25 postcards, and they’re all fascinating – with lots of flying machines! You can check them out on Tom Wigley’s set on Flickr.