Making Mail, the movie about mail art that was started by a Kickstarter campaign last year, has just been released and you can watch it online! It’s one hour long, and filled with mailart loveliness and inspiration.
Don’t you feel like grabbing your crafty supplies and some old magazines to dress up that plain envelope? Go for it! :)
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Postcrossing,
Happy birthday to you!
Hurray! It’s Postcrossing’s 9th birthday today! That’s quite a lot for an internet project, isn’t it? :)
A few exciting things happened in this past year. Here are some of the highlights:
What a great year! :D
And since it’s a special day, we wanted to share something special with you…
Remember back in March, when we asked you to send us postcards for an event – and you responded in a spectacular fashion, sending us over 1000 postcards in a week? Well, the postcards were all delivered at TEDxOporto, and we thought we’d share the talk I gave that day, as it has just been translated into English! Here it goes:
I was so nervous that when I stepped off the stage that I couldn’t remember a single word I had said… but it was truly an honor to be able to spread the message and play “mail carrier” to all your nice postcards! The people loved them and were thrilled to take them home. Some joined the project immediately, others signed up their classes… and a few were already postcrossers and came to say Hi! in the end!
So, our heartfelt thank you to all of you, for making Postcrossing what it is today. Enjoy the day… and send a postcard… or nine! ;-)
Eight years ago, Paulo launched Postcrossing to fix the problem of his empty mailbox. He recruited his friends, which told their friends, and they told their friends… and what do you know – it seems like lots of other people had the same eagerness to fill their mailboxes with postcards from around the world! :)
Today, on Postcrossing’s birthday’s, we would like to thank each and every single postcrosser out there, for your enthusiasm and continued support throughout these 8 years! This postcard revolution wouldn’t be possible without you.
Marichie, atb and UnaHora in Spain also sent us this fantastic video and Agger and auszra1 in Lithuania wrote a Postcrossing song!
We couldn’t pick a single best entry… or even three… so a lot of people are going to receive a little something from Postcrossing’s HQ! Turtles, heymma, Frogglin, kelpie, nomadic_gypsy, kugusch & linabella and Marichie, atb & UnaHora – keep an eye on your mailboxes!
Happy Postcrossing! Have a piece of your favourite cake today! :)
In theory, we all know what happens when something goes through the mail: it is picked up, put in crates and boxes, gets sorted more or less automatically, and is finally delivered by the hands of the local mail carrier. If you’ve ever seen a mail sorting center before, you know that there are hundreds of meters of conveyor belts involved, and all sorts of complicated sorting machines… but what does it look like from a “parcel’s perspective”? How many people touch it? How long does it sit around just… waiting?
Designer Ruben van der Vleuten wondered about these things, and instead of sitting still, he came up with a simple solution to solve this mistery: a camera, hidden inside a parcel!
Inside the parcel there’s also a small Arduino circuit, with a timer which tells the camera to film more when the package is moving, and less when it is stopped. The result is the amazing video below:
Pretty neat, huh? Check out Ruben’s page, to see what the parcel looked like from the inside! :)
Yay! It’s our birthday today! Time does fly when you’re having fun, eh? Every single year, we’re in awe of what this (once) tiny project has become, and how many lives it has touched. We’re immensely grateful for your kind words, enthusiasm and continued support throughout these 7 years! :)
We know you’re dying to know which videos we’ve picked… so here it goes, in no particular order:
Giacatalan, you have some great video skills! :)
LeishaCamden, your words mean a lot to us!
And Ejsirk, what a nice stop-motion video – we loved to see you jump!
Congratulations! The three of you will receive your prizes from MOO and Postcard Locker!
This was a very tough choice… we were seriously impressed by all the nice videos that many of you took the time to make, and had a lot of fun (and even got a little teary-eyed here and there) checking them out. You rock!
Now it’s time to send some postcards, blow some candles and eat a piece of cake! Please do have one too! :)
