I’ve finally worked up the courage to print some of my photos. In an effort to expand on my past tradition of gifting stickers I designed to new friends I meet while traveling, I want to reinforce the community I have, much of which is currently long distance.

I always look for postcards to decorate my seasonal housing because they are cheap, unique, and readily available in most tourist towns. Besides, who doesn’t like snail mail?

Postcards seemed like a fun way to try out several photos/designs at once; gauge which photos other people are drawn to; send photos to be professionally printed (and not at a machine myself); test papers; make my friends smile; and confront the part of me that is nervous to share my photography.

Narrowing it down felt impossible, and I went over the initial number I allowed myself to have multiple times. I went with a certain printer because i can have 25 separate images in one order and the process has been frictionless enough to make the barrier to entry was low enough i would do it. I am absolutely considering my options for more local businesses next time.

the steps honestly weren’t very linear - planning and efficiency is not oare not necessarily my strong suits - but here’s a basic idea of how I broke this project down:

2. Picking a printer

• checked websites and for local printers

• postcards are relatively easy, dont have to worry about paper quality toooooo much, not that serious

• local printers had no website or old old website and i wanted the ease of use this time to see how i would fare, if i would do it again, and reduced friction of starting which is what i thought gave this project the best chances at getting off the ground

• sent me a free test folder, no credit card required

3. Designing front and back

• which ones do i like

• not sure what resonates with others as i can only see my photos with the background bias i have. i dont know what resonates with other people, so i figured the best way to figure out what other people liked was to ask

• 25 front options

• moo refers to front and back as opposite of how i would

• what size do i like?

• lines on back?

• what little accents should i add?

• tidbits or other summaries possible for later prints

• doesn’t have to be perfect, this is a free gift, and an experiment in every way!

• exporting with ratio changes, never had to think about print settings before

4. research

• printers

• paper type

• size

• cost

5. reaching out to friends, putting myself out there

• wanted some accountability, but nervous

• delayed sending out trading cards of myself i promised 9 months ago

• should check those who requested it

• wanted to send them to friends who are in the arena with me, seasonal friends who also may have a hard time with community in the same way i do

• i was originally going to pick 25 people or less because that is how many different back designs moo allows you to have, but it was so hard to pick a small group of people, so it kept getting bigger, and i even overshot my list, so ill either have to lean into doubles or make two separate orders. no room for ones that i want to print, some of which aren’t on peoples lists even :(

• grateful to have this kind of problem