Travel Postcards

Travel Postcards are 5 x 7" cards with an image on one side and space to write a personal message on the back. They are cheap to send in the mail which made them very popular with people traveling abroad. They were able to send word home about their journey complete with a snapshot of their destination. The images usually include the name of the location, "Greetings From" and sometimes a slogan or popular saying about that place. Visually it also gave the recipient a taste of where their loved is through iconic images of buildings, animals, food and other images that make the place unique. 

This was before photography was widespread and the general public relied on these types of artist made cards to help them describe the places they have been. Today, postcards are made with photographs and largely, we are able to use our phones and social media to update family and friends on our travels. 

What makes these cards artistically unique is their use of TOPOGRAPHY. Topography is the art of text. Postcard artists used lettering in a new and unique way to utilize all the available space on the card. Their job was to get the message across about the destination by using the faces of the letters for images. This is a form of advertisement as well, to encourage recipients of these postcards to travel there themselves after they see how great these locations look on the cards. This helped develop tourism industries in these locations. 
Assignment # 1: Destination Questions
Find a photo of your destination. Copy and paste it next to the questions you will answer about it in a new slide in your google portfolio. COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!
1. Where is the destination you chose?
2. What is this place known for? Are there any sayings associated with this place?
3. What are iconic/ unique buildings there?
4. What kind of food is famous/ popular there?
5. What kind of animals are there?
6. What kind of landscape is it? (jungle, beach, city etc)
7. Why did you choose this place?
Assignment # 2: Postcard

You are to create your own vintage style travel postcard for a destination of your choice. It can be a country or a city anywhere in the world. It must have the following elements. 
  • The name of the location done in Illustrator using the 3D effect, Bevel and Emboss
  • A different photo of a recognizable image in each letter of the location name. (Think buildings, food, animals, transportation, monuments, people etc anything that makes your place unique from other places)
  • The text must have a stroke to make it stand out. 
  • A vintage texture over the entire postcard. 
  • The text must stand out in contrast with the background. MUST BE EASY TO READ. 
  • Evidence of good work ethic and EFFORT.
Tutorial for this Project Below:
PostcardTutorial
File Size: 13706 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Reflection Questions: complete these when you are done! 
When you are done with your project, and it is in your google portfolio for grading, answer the following questions in the comment section underneath your slide:
  1. What do you think you did well in this project?
  2. What do you think you could improve on in this project?
  3. What did you learn how to do, or get better at doing in this project?
  4. Why did you pick the destination that you did?
  5. Why did you use the images that you did to represent your destination?
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