Poetry Postcard Activations
Client: Paul #. Nelson, Cascadia Poetics LAB, Seattle, WA
Timeline: January-February 2026
Format: 8.5 x 11 poster, 4 x 6 mailable postcard, bookmark, landing page, digital graphis
Overview: Poetry Postcard Activiations is a series of free outdoor poetry gatherings held in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood. Each event invites participants to write, exchange, and mail postcards inspired by local parks—connecting poetry, ecology, and community through acts of correspondence and place-based learning.
The campaign required a cohesive visual system that could span multiple formats—poster, bookmark, and a fully mailable postcard—while reflecting the tactile, participatory spirt of the events themselves.
Design Approach: The visual system is rooted in collage. Layered cartographic fragments, postage marks, distressed textures, and blocks of color reference the material culture of mail, archives, and field notes. Rather than presenting parks as polished destinations, the design evokes accumulation—handled paper, overprinting, mapping, and lived-in memory.
Information is structured through bold typographic hierarchy and textured color fields that “chunk” schedules and activities into readable sections while preserving the handmade, assembled feel of the composition. The interplay between structured grids and organic overlays mirrors the balance of guided programming and open creative exploration within the events.
Within this collage-based system, the 4 x 6 postcard becomes a conceptual extension: a vintage keepsake tourist postcard that transforms Chinook Beach Park into dimensional landscape typography. Scenig photography is embedded within extruded letterforms, allowing the park iteself to become both image and message. The postcard functions as both promotional collateral and an artifact particpants can send—extending the activation beyond the park and into ciruclation.
Collateral:
8.5 x 11 poster
4 x 6 mailable postcard bookmark
social media and email graphics
landing page
