The main thing you’ll find if you took a look around this website are the postcards about life in Denmark! They are also one of my favourite thing to make, so in this post I wanted to tell you a bit more about how I make them.
It all starts with the experience. I’m not making the typical tourist postcards that simply show pictures of the city sights. That is a bit too boring for my liking. I wanted to create cards that tell you what it is actually to live in Copenhagen or what the real experience or story behind the sights is.
For example one of my first cards “The little mermaid” has a picture of the famous statue on it, just as any regular tourist postcard, but it also pokes fun of it. So often little landmarks like this become world famous city symbols even though they really aren’t worth seeing. They can often be quite disappointing in real life.
I like the idea of a “self aware” souvenir that tells you, “Look, I know I’m not that great, but I have become a sort of celebrity, so take me home anyway!”. There was a similar sentiment behind “The Round Tower” card. It was one of the first places I visited in Copenhagen and it left me extremely underwhelmed 😅 It once used to be the highest building in the city and was used as an observatory, so it certainly has it’s place and significance, but if you climb up for the view, you might leave a bit disappointed.
I like my cards to poke friendly fun at overhyped tourist traps, but I also like to ground them in real mundane every day experiences. Sometimes these are not fun experiences, but I think we can bond over how un-fun they are. Like the weather! I’m not fond of the climate in this country and I won’t shut up about it 😂 I enjoy complaining about the weather so much, I made a card about it and judging by the fact that it has become my bestseller, I’m not the only one! Well to be honest, currently there’s a draw between it and “The Danish Starter Pack”.
Sometimes inspiration comes from darker places. There probably isn’t a person who has lived in Copenhagen recently and hasn’t faced the nightmare that is the housing market. It is very hard to find a place to live and when you do you end up paying ridiculous amounts of money for the tiniest rooms. If you don’t have the budget to rent by yourself you are forced to share an apartment with strangers and are subjected to all kinds of arbitrary rules and requirements. You have to jump through a million hoops just to get a roof over your head. It’s definitely not something to celebrate, especially not in a postcard, but I thought I made it anyway. Well, I don’t really celebrate it, I just find it absurd enough to laugh at it and I know many would relate 😏
Once I’ve come up with an idea for a card I write it down in my notes to save it for the next round of card making. When the time is right to drop some new designs, I dig out the notes and start sketching. Most of the time I’ve thought about those ideas for so long that I already have a clear idea in my head of what illustration will represent each idea. If I don’t already have a clear image in my head I brainstorm around it until I come up with an idea I’m satisfied with. I like to sketch on paper in my “work” sketchbook. I usually do it in colour pencil, like red, and then ink in black pen. This way it scans more clean and my sketchbook still looks presentable years later. I used to sketch in graphite pencil and now when I open my old sketchbook all I see is grey graphite fog, which I’m not a fan of 😁
When I’m ready and happy with all the sketches I scan them and drop the scans in Adobe Illustrator where the bulk of the work happens.
I like drawing on paper and I love the feel and texture of traditional media, but I currently don’t have the space or tools to create final products with satisfactory quality purely by traditional means, so I finish my work digitally. I prefer to work in Adobe Illustrator for the crispness and flexibility it offers. I trace my sketches using pen tool an I keep all the wonkiness and imperfection of the lines, because I really love that! I try to keep the finished look as close to the hand made appearance as possible.
Once the illustration part is ready I work on the layout. For my Denmark postcard series I follow the same layout every time: an illustration on top, taking roughly 2/3 of the space and some text on the bottom to complete the concept. All the snarkiness is to be found in the fine print, so that there’s an extra layer to the card, that you can discover upon closer inspection 😉
The process of making cards isn’t usually a fast one and there are frustrating moments. Things don’t always go as planned, technical issues occur, frustration builds. So it is very important to take breaks, go outside and forget about the work for a while. Rest in-between work is just as important as the work in order to remain creative. It is easy to forget about taking breaks, especially when the schedule is tight and that’s why I dedicate a whole chapter to it, so we don’t forget!
Once the card design is more or less done it’s a good idea to do some test prints, see if everything looks as it should also in print. Often times I catch mistakes and wonky layout only in test print. It also helps to see if the colours work on paper. Spelling mistakes can show up as well. There are all kinds of small tweaks that might occur so it’s important to set some time aside for small finishing touches.
When I’ve gone over everything for at least a 100 times it may or may not be safe to print 😅 Printing has always been the most scary part for me since school. It’s intimidating, because if there are mistakes it can get quite pricy and wasteful really quick. But it has to be done sooner or later. I print locally on recycled paper. This doesn’t allow for much choice of paper or paper thickness unfortunately. There is a thicker and more textured paper I have in mind that I really want to try, but I haven’t been able to persuade myself to use a non- recycled paper yet.
I love picking up the ready cards from the printer and seeing them for a first time. It’s an exciting and terrifying moment. You finally get to see your work become a “real” physical product, but that’s also when you notice if something went wrong during printing.
The postcards usually come unsorted from the printer, so I usually make a cosy evening out of sorting them. I get a nice drink, usually tea, and separate the cards in small piles of the same design, count them, log them into inventory and put them away in their drawers
All that is left is to publish the cards online and share them with the world. Most of the time I don’t get to see people’s reactions when they receive the cards, unless I am at a market event. That is the best part of making the cards! Seeing people stop by and laugh at my silly little cards and connect with them, that is the most magical feeling ❤️
I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the process behind making the postcards about life in Denmark. Let me know if you want to learn more or have any questions 😊
