Postcards may be less prevelent than greeting cards, but they certainly haven't disappeared. This report takes a closer look at travel and novelty items, a well as new and nontraditional uses for postcards. By Janice Vis
If you were wandering through downtown Edmonton in the early months of 2015, you may have been handed a small blank postcard with instructions to write or draw your creative idea for the city’s public spaces. The Postcard Project was hosted by CITYlab in March 2015 to generate ideas and garner opinions from citizens, but that wasn’t the only thing it accomplished. The Postcard Project demonstrated that in a digital world the postcard is not an obsolete form of print. (You can read more about the project here or check out the postcards they collected here.)
CITYlab’s use of the postcard was a success, but it was also unconventional. Traditional postcards aren’t an obsolete form of print either, although they are much less prevalent than other card types, such as greeting or trading cards. Postcards can grouped into a few basic categories: “travel," “novelty,” and "nontraditional."
Travel postcards are quite cheap, usually costing between $0.25 and one dollar when sold individually. They are also offered in sets or booklets containing five to twelve items with the cost per card being under $0.50. These items are found at various tourist attractions and gift stores across the city, such as Fort Edmonton Park, Telus World of Science, and the Royal Alberta Museum. They are also sold at Canadian merchandise and collectible stores like Homestead Creations in West Edmonton Mall. Because tourist postcards are location-specific (Edmonton postcards are only relevant for locations around Edmonton) commercial chains generally do not carry these items.
Travel postcards rarely use illustration. Instead, these cards feature one or more photographs that boast the beauty of the city and the excitement of its attractions, using shots of both nature and urban life. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the postcards advertising the City of Edmonton feature the river valley and/or the city’s downtown, unless advertising a specific attraction like the West Edmonton Mall.
Travel postcards sold in Edmonton are not exclusively focussed on the city itself, but also on nearby locations or attractions that might be attractive to tourists. For example, the Telus World of Science also offers postcards for Jasper, the Rocky Mountains, and the larger Canadian nation. Regardless of the photographed location, these items read like travel advertisements, showing the best of a location in all of its (photoshopped) beauty.
These cards may be sold at Edmonton stores, but they are not targeted at local community members. Instead, the buyers of these items are visitors or those with family and friends outside of Canada. These items can be equated with tourist souvenirs. An Edmonton resident might have little appreciation for an image of buildings that he or she sees regularly, but somebody who has never seen the city would be interested.
Consider Varsity Health and Beauty at the University of Alberta. A few weeks before the 2015 fall semester began international students started to arrive, and a spinning rack of Canadian travel postcards was placed right by the entrance of the store. The international students might be interested in sending these postcards to family or friends around the world, while an Edmonton resident frequenting the university during the summer would be indifferent to the photographs of his or her hometown.
As at Varsity Health, travel postcards are almost always located near a store’s entrance, usually on a tall spinning rack. Exposure is necessary for sale because most potential buyers don’t arrive with the intention of buying postcards. Rather, they arrive at the tourist attraction and wander into the tourist shop either of curiosity or to buy a souvenir. At the Art Gallery of Alberta for example, buyers I spoke to simply assumed that I browsing gifts after visiting the current exhibits, and were rather stunned to learn that I had arrived for the sole purpose of visiting the gift shop. It was unusual for a customer to arrive only to buy postcards.
There is very little variance in the physical properties of travel postcards. They are made of thin cardboard and the front photograph is finished with a glossy shine. They can be oriented vertically or horizontally, but usually maintain a rectangular shape. These cards vary in size, which can affect pricing. At the Telus World of Science, for example, larger postcards cost $0.60 while the smaller sold for $0.30.
There is a small amount of commercial print on the back of the postcard, general crediting the printer and the photographer. Additionally, there is often a one or two sentence description of the photographed location. Other features on the back of a postcard include a space (either blank or lined) for a short message. A designated corner for a stamp is common, but not pervasive.
The printers of travel postcards are generally not exclusively invested in these items. Rather, postcard printing is usually one of many services offered by such businesses. For example, several of the travel postcards I purchased in Edmonton were printed in Ontario by The Postcard Factory. The Postcard Factory was originally opened 30 years ago to create postcards, but today cards are simply one of many offered products, which also include glassware, key chains, pens, and novelty items.
Additionally, like many printing businesses, the Postcard Factory does not exclusively print for one store. Their postcards are available to any business signed up to the website at a wholesale price. A number of Edmonton businesses might be buying from The Postcard Factory, and so it should not be surprising to find the same travel items at different locations around the city.
While the focus of a travel postcard is the location which the image promotes, the focus of novelty postcards is the artwork. This might be a photograph, but illustration is more common. Even if a photograph is used, the location of the picture is generally ambiguous, as the place is of secondary importance to the aesthetics of the item.
Similar to travel cards, there is usually commercial print on the back of novelty items. While usually crediting the printing company, novelty postcards are less likely to acknowledge the individual artist associated with the postcard’s image.
Novelty postcards are also pricier, selling for one to five dollars on average. These are sold at independent sellers such as When Pigs Fly on Whyte Avenue or downtown’s The Artworks. Unlike travel postcards, novelty items are not location-specific, making it easier for commercial chains to participate in the market. However, apart from a few commercial bookstores, postcards are still largely absent from the stock of commercial sellers.
Generally, tourist attractions do not sell novelty postcards. The Alberta Art Gallery is an expected exception, as the attraction’s purpose lends itself to the sale of art-related items. The AGA offers artistic cards often related to past or present exhibits.
Novelty postcards frequently use vintage aesthetics like calligraphy or black and white photographs to tap into a nostalgia for the past. In the digital age, postcards are an “old fashioned” method of contact, and thus potential buyers are not interested in the communicative potential of the cards but are drawn to the connotations of a “vintage” or “antique” item. While greeting cards have adopted materials like cloth, metal and electronic wiring into their design, postcards remain a paper-only item. Postcards also differ from greeting cards in that they are rarely intended for a particular holiday, but instead remain occasion-neutral.
Despite this, novelty postcards are generally located near greeting cards in stores. While the two are not interchangeable, the intent of using a print item to recognize a personal relationship gives the items a common target market. As with greeting card buyers, most of the shoppers I encountered browsing these items were adult women.
There was a general assumption among the cashiers when I was shopping that I would be sending out all the novelty postcards I was buying. Still, I would be hesitant to start sending out the cards I found to all my friends. Some of the items may be too fragile to be mailed without an envelope. Many were wrapped in plastic sleeves for protection. I found one made out of a thin sliver of wood that might break if not handled with care. A few cards confirmed my suspicions by breaking from convention and including an envelope.
Novelty postcards also use a variety of finishes on the front picture. While the glossy shine of travel post cards is still used on many of these items, cards with duller finishes or no finish at all can easily be found. While a softer finish allows for a more organic feel, it is more likely to take damage.
Aside from physical properties, the content of some postcards could make one hesitant to begin sending them out. There are certainly some items with clever sayings or cute pictures, but frequently the comical cards could be considered quite offensive if not taken in the right humour. For example, a book of postcards called Witticisms found at a Chapters store includes cards with cheeky sayings such as “the difference between cake and your opinion is that I asked for cake” and “I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.” These tongue-in-cheek phrases might be fun to flip through among friends, but you’d have to be pretty confident in your relationship with a person to send one in the mail.
Fittingly, the conversations I heard and took part in regarding postcards were generally centered on the buyer, not an intended recipient. For example, while someone looking for a greeting card might ask “would my mother laugh at this card?” buyers of postcards seemed more inclined to say “I think this one is funny!” as if the card was for him or herself, and not another person.
One reason that postcards might be purchased for oneself instead of another is that they are also considered a collectible item. Most collectors are more interested in travel postcards, but some collectors are also drawn to novelty items. As expected, collectors might be interested in postcards of any age but older cards hold greater value. The appraisal of postcards is best left to the experts, but generally older items in better condition will sell for more. According to the Toronto Postcard Club, cards printed from the last fifty years are considered “modern” and therefore are less desirable. On the other hand, cards exceeding the fifty-year mark may be expensive, even costing hundreds of dollars if they are rare. (You can get more information by visiting their website.)
There have been several attempts to preserve Edmonton’s vintage postcards. Vintage Edmonton is one such collection of photographs and postcards from Edmonton’s past. Similarly, the University of Alberta’s Peel Prairie Collection from 2011 features over 14000 postcards from the 19th to mid-20th century. While these postcards are not readily used by Edmontonians, they are a part of the city’s history, and interested parties can take part in preserving the past for study and for future generations to appreciate.
NONTRADITIONAL NEW USES FOR THE POSTCARD
Postcards are not only a collectible for the nostalgic. Although different from the traditional use, the postcard formula is ideal for present-day envelop-free advertisements. They are small enough to be made with minimal cost and conveniently fit in the mail, but large enough for a striking image, a short message, and perhaps even a small map to a local location. Aside from the mail, these cards can also be found on flyer racks, distributed by business employees, and by cashiers.
Such miscellaneous cards are used for advertisement, but are also printed to dissipate general information. For example, the TLC Medical Clinic in West Edmonton offers free cards with advice and support information regarding kids’ health, family abuse, and addictions.
Similar to other postcards, these advertising or information items are usually made of thin cardboard and often have a glossy finish. Illustration and design is clearly an important feature, but these items are more print-focused than traditional postcards. The target market varies widely depending on the card’s message, but is generally adult.
Businesses or institutions can purchase this type of custom postcard for advertising or public service purposes at any local printer. Purchasing 50 of these cards might cost about $10.00, although the exact pricing depends on size, finish, and colour. As expected, the price per item continually falls as the number of items ordered increases. But the printing cost is not the only cost that local businesses need to account for if considering ordering customized postcards, as they may also need to hire a designer to ensure the effectiveness of their print item.
Advertisement and information cards are examples which demonstrate new uses for the postcard being invented while traditional postcards are still bought and sold around the city. The mixture of old and new purposes of the cards brings into question the future of the print item and how it might be used in the years to come.
Last Updated: Feb 5, 2017
