I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on with a couple of friends, it's a platform to promote emerging artists called INKIII.
Anyone who visits the website can mail a physical postcard (that doubles as a limited edition art print) with a personalized message from Rome, Italy — for free. In addition to the personalized message, each postcard also contains a short text by the artist on the philosophy behind their work.
This concept has been a crazy dream of mine for a long time, very much inspired by the legacy of Mail Art in combination with my contemporary take on something like the Victorian era art periodical but scaled to our attention spans (just one image, a blurb of text). This is not a commercial venture, the website does not use cookies or save any user data. I created it so that people can connect with art and friends in a way that isn’t simply virtual, and engage with art and thought in an unexpected way.
I wrote the site myself in React using a template called Gatsby Starter Forty, and then used UpWork to find a developer who could help me implement the back-end of the form. I am not a developer, and my coding knowledge doesn't extend far past basic css and html. I’m open to all feedback about the user experience. For example, some feedback I’ve gotten on the form is that autocomplete section is confusing (but it took so long to learn how to get the key from Google!), and that it might be more straightforward to just have separate lines to fill in much like an actual postcard. I am the kind of person that does not remember postal codes, and hate filling out forms, so I thought the autocomplete was neat...
We have tried to be as thoughtful as possible about the concept: It’s free to send the postcards, but our artists do get paid for their work. Our focus is on emerging artists, not established (with the understanding that it's not always an easy distinction to define). It was important to me that the artist add some context about their work, so that it's not just a customizable decorative piece: the artist gets some control over how you experience it. The postcards are printed locally on Shiro recycled paper, and use regular mail services. I envision this remaining a non-profit forever, but my long-term vision is to one day have funding to be able to pay artists larger fees, and if the volume / demand increases, also pay someone that isn’t me to print and send the postcards. I’d love to know your thoughts on these considerations, if any.
We created an Instagram @inkiiimail for people to share their postcards when they arrive and see photographs of my cat pretending to stamp things. Thanks for taking a look! The website is live, please feel free to send a postcard!
Christina Wollesen