Why Have a Postcard Project?

Why Postcards?

1. We love snail mail.

Because of the internet, it has becomes so much easier, and faster (perhaps, even more reliable) to communicate with the world. Email and private (or even public) messages just take minutes to get to your inbox. Even bills and bank statements can be sent to your email address. This is excellent for efficiency, and it saves tons of paper – but we have to admit, there is a thrill we get from receiving something in the mail.

2. We love handwritten mail. (Handwritten anything.)

Call us old fashioned, but it is nice to receive personal, handwritten notes. It’s also a nice change to be able to sit down and write notes for friends and family (carefully thinking over what will be written, so as not to mess it up too much with erasures).

3. We want something that people will keep or share (and not throw away).

Hopefully, we’ll be able to produce cards that people like – the kinds of cards that people put on their walls or cork board, stick on their notebooks or planners, or use as a bookmark. We’d like to have postcards that people from home aren’t ashamed of sharing or mailing out.

A big shout out to the Salingoy Art Group and Rommel Perez for the layout of our first two cards! They are amazing!

4. It’s another way of sharing the visions we believe in.

I guess the values we lined up in explaining the project pretty much summarizes it:

Pride of Place – We hope to share postcards of Naga City with friends and family via Philippine Post. There are so many places that we can be proud of, and so many aspects of our culture and heritage that we can share with the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

Creativity – These postcards (and the future postcards) are products of local artists (whether they are professional painters, designers, photographers or graphic artists or beginners giving their creativity some space to grow) here in Bicol.

Communication – The Postcard Project team really appreciates how the internet and social media have made it so easy to keep in touch and share information – but there is just something about a sincere, handwritten note and receiving something in the mail too!

It also gives us a way to share our advocacies and raise funds for them as well!

You can read more about Gawad Kalinga here.

You can also read more about Gurit Kamot here.

For both Spiral Sun and Bubble Town Tea House, these values have made a huge imprint in our personal lives, as well as the history of our establishments. Both started with a big move from Vancouver to Naga, with high hopes and big dreams for a place that has always been home. And seriously, if you’ve lived far from home for a long time, communication with loved ones across the seas is definitely top of the list.

We look forward to having more post cards to share with you! But in the mean time, enjoy the Porta Mariae Postcard and the first Gurit Kamot Postcard (Yes! We dream of having many more – maybe even a set in which each painting can have it’s own card). And for those from Bicol, these are proudly an All-Bicol production – from the artists, to the layout, to the photographers, the image and the printer (Shout out to WILLPRINT GRAPHICS CENTRE, INC for always being an excellent partner!)

Read more about the Post Card Project here.