ZoCard Postcards

There were times in the past when my friends lamented that Singapore has no nice postcards. That became a problem when they want to participate in activities like Postcrossing. I think that has changed quite a fair bit in recent years with ZoCards and such companies.

ZoCard has produced interesting cards, often for marketing purposes of events and public messages, for examples those Public Health messages on Zocards. So it has become a habit where I will take a look at the postcard stand when I walk past locations with those stands.

Recently there was this set of artistic cards. I am not sure if they were commissioned by any organisation, but well they do look good. I've seen some of these postcards being used to decorate the office cubicles of my colleagues. So let me share these pictures with you. :)

Postcards from Thailand, London, Stockholm, and Berne

I have cultivated a habit such that I will send myself a postcard whenever I travel overseas. Over the years I have collected a number of these cards from Europe and Asia. I guess they served as mementos from the travel, with date and stamp attached.

Here's a few of the postcards from London, Berne, and Stockholm. The Christmas theme postcard (upper right corner) is shiny when under the right light conditions, and the postcard from London (left) depicting a postal activity is actually quite funny.

The back of the postcards, with the cancellations and stamps attached.

One of the countries that I frequent more often is Thailand for both work (mostly) and leisure reasons, and so I have three of the postcards. Sometimes I will use the free postcard available from the hotels, but at other times I simply buy an interesting looking card from the shops.

Postcards are interesting, and I think recent years there seems to be more interests surrounding postcards, e.g. post-crossing and such. I think that is partly due to the casual networking associated with such a postcard, with relevant pictures depicting the cities, that make them interesting.

Postcards - Health Promotion Board ZoCards (set of 12)

We are all familiar with postcards, but this set of pop-up postcards by Health Promotion Board is especially interesting. It seems there is a whole set of 12 cards, but I've managed to obtain only 5 of them.

Each card contains a simple message about health and living. For example the green card in the upper left corner says 'the more we get together' (front), 'the merrier we'll be' (back), with a additonal para of 'Dear ______, you are invited to a) a game of tennies, b) a makan (eating) session, c) a party, d) _______. Make your way to __________.

Very meaningful message isn't it. Imagine receiving this postcard in your letterbox, which serves both as a postcard as well as an invitation. An example of the front and back of another card is shown below.

This is a series launched from April 2008 to March 2009. I noticed that whenever the cards are put on the ZoCards rack, it will be gone within 1-2 days. The card below is the last of the series. I guess it is a pretty popular series. The cards also contain a message to check out 'www.healthymind.sg', the promotional website for Health Promotion Board, and the entire set of cards could be viewed on that website.

Postcrossing - Postcards from around the World

I was introduced to Postcrossing by a good friend of mine. Postcrossing is an interesting group activity / project, and the goal is to:

allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you'll receive at least one back, from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.
Why? Because, like the author, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you'd probably never have heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises - and who wouldn't like that?

I registered but didn't really send any postcards (oops!). Eventually my account got deleted due to inactivity. My friend did participate and he has sent (and received) quite a number of the postcards from around the world. It is a novel idea, and brings the world together, effectively making it smaller.

There are a significant number of users from Singapore, 568 users who have sent 7711 postcards to be exact (as of now). For a country that barely sent out any number of personal letters / postcards, having such Postcrossing figures is quite impressive. :)

An additional interesting feature is the showcasing of the different postcards sent and received, such that through this website, one could almost see the different postcards from around the world! Here's the page from Singapore (again), where the postcards and the users are shown.