How to exhibit your postcards – learn from a pro

While I’m preparing for „postcard forest” exhibition, I was thinking to write for you a good and helpful article about why and how to organize a postcard exhibition. Then, the idea came up, to invite a professional collector who has deep aknowledge and experience in postcard exhibitions. Why not to learn from a pro? It took some time to find the right person, but finally, I’ve found him!

Mihnea Răducu is a Postcrossing active member… and even more than just an active member. He is the creator of the FLAGS OF THE WORLD postcard serie (FOTW), but we will read later about this. He organized an exhibition of postcards and Coca Cola bottles from around the world.

I’m very proud to have today Mihnea as special guest!

Hello Mihnea and welcome to ManuPostcards!
First of all, tell us something about you, please.
Hello, I will start saying thank you for invite me to this interview. About me: this year (2018) I will turn on 42 yo, I am married with a very supportive wife, and I have a son, Sebastian, now 12 yo. I was born in Curtea de Arges, I am very proud of that and now I live and work in Bucharest.

I would like to ask you when and how did you discover the passion for postcard collecting. How was the beginnng?
The beginning was interesting. I quit smoking in december 2012. And somewhere in feb march 2013 I discovered my albums with stamps from my childhood. And I say: sum of vices must remain equal, I will start collecting stamps. But after a very short time I realize that collecting stamps is almost impossible in Romania. We have here the Romfilatelia who issue stamps like a river, so expensive, so for having money from collectors. And in the summer of 2014 I discovered a contest made by Romanian Post, called Through postcrads you can see the world. And the condition was to subscribe a child between 6 and 14 yo., like a summer project. And we participate and gain 1st,2nd and 3rd places all categories. In one month I manage to have for the contest: postcards from 80 countries from all the world, 42 of 43 from Europe (missing only Alderney, imagine that Inhad Kosovo or Andorra 2 postal administration) and 81 from Romania.
So I discovered amazing world of postcards, first, and only after about postcrossing.

Which topic do you like the most? Do you find easily the postcards from the favorite topics?
Well, this is not an easy question. First … I like what you like. If the sender really like the postcard that he send, the receiver will be happy. After, I really like cards with traditional people, clothes, women . After that I like cards with map and flags, important people and leaders of the world, and famous places and monuments. I consider collecting cards can be so educative, and you can learn a lot about all the world from them. No is mot easy to find what I like, in Romania the offer is not so generous. In book shops you can find cards from 2s Design or Adlibri, but they are quite expensive . And I found a printing company – Terra design , with the owner, Marius Vasiliu, a great photographer, who really make impressive cards for postcrossing too. And nobody with flags. To find a card with flag of Romania was almost impossible. So I make my own company, Postcardsmarket.com SRL organized like a juridic person in Romania, and acting like an online shop. And together with one friend we found that company and start to design/ create cards and sell them via online. And today, after starting with Romania flag, we create a serie, that collectors call FOTW (Flags of the world) that start to begin very famous in the world of collectors But is a small business, and now I must look for solution to expand it ( I must say that I work in Pharma Industruy like Product Manager, and I hardly find time for my hobby).

There are more collectors around the world who desire to organize an exhibition, but they don’t have the aknowledge. That’s why I was thinking to discuss in details about this issue. The aim is to encourage the collectors to organize their own exhibitions, or other events, and sure, to give them a step by step guide, through this interview.
Before exhibition they must start meet other collectors. They must show their collections, because a collection not seen by the world is a poor collection. It is easy to start meeting other people with same hobby. In postcards world we have postcrossing meetings. I must say that those postcrossing meetings reallupy inspire me as well to organize a exhibition. And Imagine that: my first postcrossing meeting was in Budapest in April 2015. I was travelling there for a business meeting Thurdsay and Friday. And I decided to stay over the weekend too to see Budapest too. That time I was working for Gedeon Richter, an Hungarian medecine producer. And , Friday evening I saw a post on facebook that Saturday at noon there will be a postcrossing meeting in city center I look for it and I participate in, of course.. And I like so much, that after returning back in Romania I start organize my meetups too . Till now I was in 38 meetups in Romania, and also international: Poland Krakow, Limoges France, Prague, Germany, Estonia and Lithuania ( mini meetups) and a big event made by me in Chisinau, at Moldova Post main office- with an exhibition too. There, in Moldova, was in fact my first exhibition ( you can read about all in my postvrossing profile, here: https://www.postcrossing.com/user/mihneaR

Why do you consider that’s important to organize a postcard exhibition? Let’s give to the collectors( beginners or advanced) a motivation to think about organizing an event.
As I already said: an collection not visible, not exposed is poor. Basically is not existing for the world, there is only for the owner.

Now let’s summarize step by step, how to organize an exhibition, based on your experience. So, if I want to organize an exhibition, what should be the first step, and beyond?
First, you must think what to expose, and where. Who will be your auditorium? They will have any interest in your expo? You know, is not beautiful what is beautiful is beautiful what I like . But when you organize an expo you must think at how interesting is your exhibition for potential viewers.
Regarding space, a museum can be a good place. As well can be any kind of public place: a library, a post office, why not a restaurant or a terrace.
And you must think how you will expose: on special frames, on tables , on specific places in a museum ( that s why is good to organize in a museum, because they know how to make an expo).
You’ll be surprised that museums are very open to such initiatives…

I hope our readers will be inspired from your experience described above, and will get the motivation to organize an event.

 

If you know other reasons why it´s good to organize an event based on postcards, please tell us.

As I was saying in an interview for Moldovan Tv post: postcrossing is making the world smaller and better. Is about smiling, about positive attitude, about good thoughts. Before organizing an expo, is important to have a hobby. There are collectors of everything in this world: from napkins to beer caps, from fridge magnets to toy trains, from expensive cars to watches, jewelry, Faberge eggs, antiquities anything can be collectible. In fact this is the key: having a collection is like having foid for thought, to have your mind escape into this specific and beautiful world

Do you have future plans regarding to postcard collecting, or organizing events?

Tell us what are your future plans.

A lot of plans On 9 June I will be part in a postcrossing meetup in Deventer, Netherland, on 16 June will be a postcrossing meeting in Bucharest. On 23 June I will be again im Chisinau, Moldova, for the launch of their postcrossing dedicated stamp ( I am special guest, because I was involved in obtaining as well a Romanian postcrossing stamp, and for that – the owner of postcrossing site Paulo Magalhaes – give me the postcrossing ambassador badge, and I became a Romanian postcrossing ambassador 😉 ) .
On 14 july another meeeting in Bucharest celebrating 12 years of postcrossing existence, at beginning of September I am planning an postcard exhibition in Iasi, there is an initiative of a lady working in a post office, on 9th october – World Post day for sure I will do something dedicated, and last weekend of October I plan to participate in a very big meeting in Bielefeld, Germany… so yes, a lot of plans

At the end, I want to thank you, Mihnea for your kindness and I wish you luck in all your activity!

The Postcard forest project is going on

Last time, here  I wrote about my intention to start a project about postcards. At that time, the project was called „Postcrds against global warming.” This name is not the best one, because we will attract the opposite. Maybe you know a few words about the law of attraction, for example: if you are against hunger, be rather for more food. If you are against war, be rather for more peace, and so on. So, I will change the name „Postcards against global warming”.

First, what  do we need to reverse the global warming, and the climate changes?  We need more oxygene! And of course, reduce the CO2 and methane emissions.

And where does the oxygene come from?  It comes from the plants, the plants provide oxygene, through photosynthesis.

So, what do we need for more oxygene?  We need more plants, especially trees. More trees, it means also more forests.

So, let’s promote the plants, trees, forests, and urban forest innitiatives. That’s why I ws changed the name into „postcard forest”. But it is possible to hange the name later.

In this step of the project, I am collecting and collecting poscards. These are the categories what I collect:

– plants, any kind of plants (let’s say botany)

– trees (also botany)

– forests

– parks, botanical gardens

– biophyllic architecture or any kind of urban gardening

– different places altered by climate changes, deforestation, intensive agriculture or other human activities. For example, I’m looking for postcards about lake Aral nowadays, and old postcards about Lake Aral.

 

I want to say „thanks” to Anna from Italy and Adriana from Romania, for their help. They have sent me postcards for this project! I don’t have any scanner at the moment to be able t scan some postcards. But I will do later.

When the collection for the project will be big enough, the next step will be an exhibition, even more exhibitions. The aim for a long term, is to raise awareness about the climate changes, and to promote more plant growing, as a method to provide more oxygene.

 

 

 

New eco-cities lead probably to new postcards

Yesterday I have written about a project meant to raise awareness about the climatic changes which affects all of us.

Today I have seen a documentary which has shown (among the others), the concept of a new city. Near Dubai, a new city is raising, and that is called Masdar. The city’s architecture is inspired by… you cannot imagine – is inspired by the Medieval cities, where the buildings were built so close each to the other, and the streets were so narrow. Something similar is designed in Masdar, and due to this architecture, there’s no need for cars.

For sure there are more such cities like Masdar in the world. And it would be great to achieve some postcards from those cities. In the first step, dear reader, let’s create a list of the eco-cities from all over the world. And then, it will be easier to search for postcards.

Dear reader, if you know such eco-cities, or eco-villages, write me in a comment.

Best wishes

Manu

Postcards against the global warming

Hello dear reader! It was a time when I had no inspiration, no ideas what to post on this blog. But do you know, lack of inspiration may be for the moment, may be for a while, but it can’t be forever… unless you want that.

No matter where are you from (however, I would like to get followers from all around the world), you can feel the effects of the global warming. The global average temperature has been raised by 0,5 C degree, and due to this, some areas are coping with desertification and lack of water. Stronger hurricans are damaging cities, new fires are burning the forests. But in the same time, pushed by this economy, the people cut the forests, pollute more. The agriculture is a very polluting activity. Apart from this, more and more lands which are deforested to be given to the agriculture.

It’s not my goal to write here an essay about the global warming. You may find a lot of documentaries on youtube about this topic.

I’ve found, for example this short, but very concise video:

 

Amazon desert??!!  It’s so scaring.

 

My purpose is to show by the help of postcards, the  effects of the global warming, and to sensibilise the people that we still have time to stop this phenomenon. The plants are our best friends in the fight with the global warming.

How that man said in the video, the future generations maybe won’t know what is a tree!

By the way, yesterday I have bought a Juniperus chinensis small tree. Apart from this, I have a lemon tree. I think everyone may have a juniper small tree in a pot, in a flat.

But now, let’s turn back to the postcards.

For this project I will continue to buy postcards about parks, forests, and plants (any kind of plants), and something new in my collection: postcards about places which are changed by the global warming, or agriculture. If you have such postcards about places altered by the global warming, or  by human activity, we may exchange. Contact me for infos.

Because I don’t have scanner now, I will post the already scanned postcards what I have in this topic:

Kiev

 

The Botanical Garden from Cluj Napoca, Romania

 

The botanical Garden from Bolestraszyce, Poland

 

 

A postcard from a sketch drawing

Lot of happy people going around, good music, and good weather. Yes, we are at the festival. At every festival there are salesmen who try to sell different interesting objects: handcrafted souvenirs, or food, or t-shirts, or anything else. I have took a look around the place, to find some postcards and… of course, I found the table where they are selling postcards.

What I bought there is not an ordinary postcard, based on a photo, it’s a postcard which represents a hand drawing, a sketch. Take a look on it, this is the Liberty Bridge, from Budapest – Hungary:

Liberty bridge, budapest, Hungary

 

Why not, sometimes a sketch may add more effect than a photography. But for sure, it depends on the quality of the drawing and the quality of the photo. I’m thinking now that a postcard based on a sketch drawing can be a solution for some places where there’s noting so special to include on a good photo. 

Do you like the postcards based on drawings?