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While I am scanning the topics of this week, Postcards which are placed in Victorian era seems to be an interesting subject to be discussed. Postcards are mostly personal expressions to communicate our friends or family who are far from us. It can be said that an experience shared between long distances… It is not a long personal explanation like letters but something like a mark, short message even sometimes only with an image or illustration. However it is not as private as letter because it has sent without envelope and companies create designed cards for people to send. Therefore, it has an advertising approach also.

The first known postcards with images were in 1840s which were hand drawn. In 1870, the first printed postcard with one side picture was produced by Léon Besnardeau. Then postcards started to use as souvenir and advertising although the main reason was being cheaper and faster in the beginning. Postcards also became an important figure of Victorian era which based on ornaments resembles the wealth of people and also the idea of traveling became important because of the invention of trains and steam boats.

Today postcards are not used commonly in order to provide communication because of technology. We send e-mails and make phone calls. However, the meaning of postcards has survived and many artists created new concepts out of it.

PostSecret is a community art project in which artists from whole world put their own postcards that telling their secret stories on the web. The web site became an online journal of different people who contains personal stories and experiences expressed on postcards. The postcards are creatively illustrated and designed with an intention to communicate. This project is derived from the personal message of the postcards. They have also exhibitions of these postcards as printed and also books that collects these works. Thus the book becomes a narrative of many people.

Another modern example is an artist Ayaka Nozawa who created mail art and share with his friends. The idea comes from the traveling through friends with digital postcards. He also ask people to date and sign postcards and send back to him. In this way he keeps the memory of that time and understands he and his friend alive at that time. He also makes installations out of these postcards.

Cartography is study of maps to visualize spatial information in an effective way by combining it science, aesthetics, system and technique. The art of cartography has developed after Renaissance with the discoveries about science. One of the most important cartographer of these times was Abraham Orelius who is a Flemish cartographer and known as the founder and master of the first modern atlas. It is called Theatrum Orbis Terrarum which has many editions.

From these times, with the growth of technology mapping has changed in its technique but the concept of mapping is considered in different meanings by artists in contemporary world. Map is seen as an expression of how individuals place themselves in universe in different cultures and time of periods. This is a way of subjective mapping of identities… There are many artists who use map as a visual expression.

Leila Daw is one of these artists. She uses maps as installations or creates maps with painting and other mixed media. Her works have references to nature and her main point is the destructive effect of the human on planet. In this manner, she resembles the disasters with different mediums

She also turns maps in different forms like seats…

In her other work which is done for Bradley International Airport, the aim was making people to connect to feeling of flying between locations. She folded maps in different shapes that refers to the ways of flying by turning them into form of kite, plane and other flying objects.

After the invention of printing, the book became something producible and the page construction and layout is started to be analyzed to make organization of text with the page in a proper way. This invention changed the views of designers and creates opportunity for many new applications.

Book design has progress in the historical context with designer and artists like John Gutenberg, Jan Tschichold and Richard Hendel.The printing process is important because it has effects on sequence of the text, size and layout which is not by hand but with new techniques. The design of book is not just page construction but an artwork with its shape, materials, cover, binding etc. In this manner it contains wide features and designer should consider all details. In contemporary design world, the book also affected by multidisciplinary and new developments of technology.

Irma Boom is a well-known contemporary book designer who designed nearly 200 books which contains her creative attitude. She has an unusual usage of formats and typographic approaches which contacts to  the reader in terms of the context of the book and this creates and haptic experience. Her one of the most famous work  SHV Anniversary Book is a really big printed material which focuses on the history of company. The interesting part of the book is that it is not chronological, the information mixed and it has no page number or any other regular system. “This book is a voyage” Irma says. The discoveries and coincidence makes people’s mind change and think about it. Therefore, design of the book supports this discovery approach with its interesting colors and layout. She has many other works with different techniques. For example one of her book is printed on the coffee filter paper…