Postcrossing Blog

We’re always in awe of teachers and their innovative ideas for class projects involving Postcrossing. Sometime ago, we told you about this game of bingo from a Taiwanese school, and now Charlene (aka clbrown) from the USA wrote in to let us know of a project she’s been doing with her class, connecting their lives to Mozart… via postcards!

I know it sounds a bit strange, but it works! Charlene is an elementary school teacher in Omaha Public Schools in Nebraska. This summer, their camp theme was “Making Connections” — and what better way to connect Mozart to students than through postcards? The assignment was to select postcards that represent the student, represent Mozart, and cards that have something in common for both the student and Mozart. Charlene gave them all an example, plenty of her own postcards, and let them do their research. Here are some photos of the result:

Did you know, for instance, that Mozart called his wife "little mouse’, or that he loved the colour red and had a few red suits? What about the fact that he was an animal lover and kept several pets?

The results are great and they show a lot of meticulous researching, as connecting an Austrian composer to a random postcard takes some creative thinking! Turns out, we’re all humans in the end, so connections are inevitable, once you go looking for them.

Well done children, and well done Charlene, for coming up with this imaginative activity!

So, you might remember that last week I asked for your help with some postcards for a conference… and boy, did you ever deliver! :D

Here’s my brother opening the PO box about a week after the initial call:

I’m still speechless at the amount of postcards that tumbled out of that mailbox… it’s like it never ends! Can you believe there were over 600 postcards in there?!

So, I owe you… a lot. Thank you so, so much for your generosity and support. Seriously, postcrossers are THE best! :)

I expect that quite a few cards are still on their way and will arrive in the coming weeks, so I’ve already taken the address down. The audience should be less than 1000 people, so any extra cards will be safely kept for a next event of the sort.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a presentation to work on! The event will likely be recorded on video, so I’ll try to show you how it went in a few weeks. Fingers crossed! :)

Dear postcrossers,

This is Ana, your community manager speaking. I’m usually the writer behind the posts that you read on this blog… but today I’m writing this one as myself, to personally ask for your assistance.

You see, in about a month, I will be in Portugal, standing in front of an audience of several hundred people from various backgrounds, to tell them about Postcrossing and the simple pleasures of receiving mail. The problem is… I’m willing to bet that 99% of them have probably never received a postcard, or don’t remember the last time that they did. How can you empathize with something you’ve never experienced? While brainstorming a plan for making this work, I reached the inevitable conclusion: I have to show them!

So, inspired by Oprah, my idea is to surprise many of the conference attendees with an unexpected postcard written just for them, which they would receive during the talk!

I could write all the postcards myself… but I think it would be much more interesting if the postcards came from different people all around the world, with their own stories and details.
So I wanted to ask… would you mind writing a postcard, and giving me a hand? I would be really grateful, and you’d be helping all these people re-discover the magic of postcards! :)

Interested? Got a neat card that you don’t mind sharing? Then mail it to:

We’ve received sooooo many cards in just a week, that I’ve decided to remove the address, as I think they’ll be more than enough. Thank you so much! :)

What should you write on it? Whatever you like, really, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• How do you feel when you find a postcard on your mailbox at the end of the day?
• What does Postcrossing mean to you?
• What have you learnt or discovered through postcards? What would you teach this person?
• What was the most inspirational talk you’ve ever attended or listened to?
• What is special about your city or country?

Or you could just describe what you did today and what the weather is like where you are… anything goes, really! :)

That’s it! Those who know me, know that I’m a bit shy and not particularly comfortable with the spotlight… I’d like to think that, by carrying your postcards with me, I’ll have a little bit of your support on that stage.

Thank you so much in advance! :)

PS:

I thought I’d add a couple notes to clear up some of the questions that have come up in the comments:
- Please don’t put my name on the postcard – the cards are not for me, they’ll all be delivered to the attendees. The address is a PO box, it works fine without a name.
- If you want to write a salutation on the message, keep it simple and flexible with an “Hello” or “Dear attendee”
- The event takes place on March 8th… so please send your cards soon! :)

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)!

As many of you know, MOO makes pretty printed things… like cute business cards, stickers and our favourite, postcards! They’re great, and have often partnered with Postcrossing in the past, giving away lots of lovely presents on our giveaways.

So, the minute we knew we were going to the UK earlier this year, an idea sprung to mind… weren’t MOO headquarters located in London? We’re always curious of knowing how things work behind the scenes – could they perhaps show us around and introduce us to Little and Big MOO?

Turns out, yes they could! :D Giddy with excitement and barely containing our smiles, we were shown around MOO headquarters by Simon Goble, MOO’s Head of Brand Communications, who took the time to explain how everything works and patiently answer our many questions. And of course, we brought the Little Mail Carriers’ cousin around for the tour… below is his report of the day!

Hello from MOO’s lovely reception area in Shoreditch, London! Can you spot me up there? :)
Boy, were we excited to be there… I couldn’t wait to meet Big MOO and see some postcards being made!

And what do you know, there are actually not one but two Big MOOs (aka, their printing machines), to cope with all the demand for postcards and business cards! The two digital offset HP Indigo presses are lightning fast and can print up to 68 four-colour A4 pages per minute!

They even let me take a peek inside… wow! So this is where the action happens…

All around MOO’s sunny warehouse, which takes their complete ground floor, people were focused on cutting, wrapping and packing orders for shipping. Huge mail bags lined a wall, ready to be picked up by their mailman.

Everything is done with productivity and waste reduction in mind. For instance, if an order consists of different products which aren’t all simultaneously ready, the ones that are finished earlier are put in color-coded bins while they wait for the other parts to be finished – this way they can be shipped together, saving on shipping costs! Smart, right?

Meanwhile on the upper floors, everyone was hard at work making sure everything is running smoothly and every single customer is happy. MOO was founded in 2004 and has since grown to be an award-winning company which employs 90 people in London, and in the US.

What makes people want to work at MOO? The perks include a birthday cake on your birthday, joint lunches on Fridays, fussball tables…

… and a fully stocked breakfast pantry! :D

In the end of the tour, there was still enough time to pop around the corner to MOO’s new shop on Boxpark. Here, MOO products are shown in clever displays so that clients can have a close look at them before ordering online. The shop is exquisitely done, and feels like stepping inside a real website, complete with sliders and menus! Here’s Simon pulling a menu to show us how it works:

I tried it myself, but I’m afraid I was a bit too light for the job…

And of course, this being just like a website, there’s a cookie policy as well (conveniently spelled out on a cookie jar)!

Thank you Simon for showing us around! I can’t wait to go back someday – and show it to other postcrossers! :)

YAY for MOO!