Postcards for Pessimists shares with the world the not so glamorous side to travel. In this day and age, users carefully curate the content that they choose to share on social media to a ridiculous degree. Instagram travel posts show only a beautiful vista; not the 18 hour flight delay, the heat exhaustion, the motion sickness, the sunburn, the lost luggage, the stolen property, and the sprained ankle that all went into the very same experience. The goal of Postcards for Pessimists is to bring a dose of reality to travel posts and to share these hand lettered misadventures so that others won’t feel so alone in their travel fails or might even learn from these.
This series challenged me to create thought provoking phrases to spark the audience interest while also telling a story. Additionally, I was able to develop my layout skills by lettering on top of existing photos. The trickiest part was enabling the words to interact in some way with their photographic environment. Not only must it fit in with the landscape, but it must also stand out. Most importantly, this project has taught me that a strong concept at the foundation of every creative endeavor is essential.
This project was inspired by and created while enrolled in Passion to Paid, a course taught by Lauren Hom.