Remember pencils and paper?

I sure do.

I have a passion for the tactile. Paper, printed things, books, making and sending cards. I love letterpress and bookcloth and handwriting and signatures.

It's been a bumpy road, these past 10 years designing for web and other media, in addition to print. Call me old-fashioned. But I get better year after year. And I'm now actually becoming more productive by using files and apps for notes and to-dos. Not only does it cut down on paper use - sustainability is another passion of mine - it's also easily searchable, depending on what you use.

But I digress..

I love handwriting and signatures, making and sending cards. I miss the days when I received more personal mail in my mailbox. Like most kids, I had a few pen pals growing up. And like most romantics, I have saved them, neatly packed away in a box in my closet. There are also notes from my high school best friend that we passed in class, little notes my mom would send to my college dorm with much needed money, letters from the grandmother after whom I was named, and love letters from all the old boyfriends.

But it's all precious stuff from my past. The present is all about emails, text messages, tweets and evites, not cards that are signed with a pencil and mailed with a stamp. It makes me a little sad and a lot nostalgic.

So when I sat down to make my resolutions for 2011 in January, one of them was to reconnect with the people I love. Now, I add this clause: by sending proper paper letters and cards!

What got me thinking about this today?

Good Magazine. September's 30-Day Challenge - "a monthly attempt to live better" - begins today. The challenge this month is to connect with people. For this one, they're offering up daily tasks to help get folks out of the digital rut and have some real interaction. The first task? Send someone a postcard.

I think it's a stellar idea.

Now, off to write a postcard to my mom.


angela mitchell
art director
FUNCTION: we’re into building things through marketing, design and public relations