PostSecret by Frank Warren is a blog and a series of books. People are invited to decorate a postcard with their secret and post it in. In one sense it's a release for some secret burden people have been carrying around, in another it's a nice visual insight into the lives of those who post their secrets.
You can purchase the books from amazon
Or you can visit the blog PostSecret
8 comments:
Beautifully depressing.
Love the idea behind this - the personalised nature of the postcards, the handwriting, the typefaces, the images and colours people have chosen to use to express their 'secret' makes each one so much more personal and authentic. It's quite a strange experience reading the secrets other people have chosen to tell.
Loved this website the first time I saw it and have brought a few of the books as they make quite good presents! But sometimes I doubt the authenticity of the postcards.....how is it that they all look so amazing, all these people seems to be great graphic designers!
i think the way the postcards are out together, the typefaces, images etc are spot on, but i too can't help being suspisious about the authenticity of the secrets! If i had a burning secret that i couldn't bear to speak out about I'm pretty sure i wouldn't be able to put it on a postcard and publish it to the world! The cathartic concept is a really interesting one to consider though!
Fun to read into the secrets of strangers but yes as it has been pointed out the authenticity of the secrets is a little suspicious. Even though it is obviously anonymous would you still share to the World your innermost secrets? They have all been thought out carefully to use clever imagery that suits the theme of the secret and this creates some great pieces of interesting graphic design.
Love the idea of getting people involved and sharing secrets to the world, there's something quite daring about it. However the images, layout, the typefaces work so well together, they don't come across authentic. Surely, if they were real they wouldn't look this aesthetically pleasing? Even if he has made these secrets up, he could have thought about all the kind of people out there and how they would have portrayed their secrets, pushed the boundaries a bit more to come across in a less professional and more revengeful manner.
Kirsty first introduced me to PostSecrect in its original book format. The online versions are cool but there is something about reading them straight out of the book... it ads to the personal element, that secrect being passed on from one person to another. Some of them are so well designed and graphically brilliant. Just goes to show, if there is something important to say then ordinary people will find the most appropriate way to say it.
Really interesting idea and it appeals to that voyeuristic side that many people have. I agree with smp_123 that some of the cards seem a little too good, however it might be that the majority of people who come to know about PostSecret are creative types, or else wanting to release a secret which is very important to people draws out their creativity.
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