The Emotional and Creative Addiction of Post Secret

July 12th, 2006

After a long day of Jakob Neilsen’s brand of usability, I relaxed with a plate of Dim Sum and a couple of Tsingtao - San Francisco style. I casually strolled down a couple of blocks and came upon a book store. Not just a bookstore, the book store of alternative culture - City Lights.

I wander in, feeling over 50 years of creative history in the air. The free-flowing conversations of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and others permeate through the walls. And amidst all of that passion, art and history, what did I sit down to read first? Yep, the Post Secret book - and I read it cover to cover.

I have no doubt that Post Secret has been blogged about before, but I felt it’s worth another mention. Post Secret is truly an emotional addiction. The simplest of ideas - get a postcard and write down your secret - has opened inner workings of average people for the world to see.

In one scroll down of the web page or several flips of the book, you’ve traveled the spectrum of emotions. And it’s not only that you feel something, it’s that you can relate to it. Either you’ve felt the same way, know someone who did, or enthralled by the fact that someone else is actually feeling, thinking or doing these things you’re reading.

As a designer, I love exploring the composition, imagery, and words that someone has chosen to represent their particular secret. It’s almost as if the deeper the secret, the more that person can represent it. Even for the non-creative, it seems the emotion drives the creativity. I find it fascinating.

The postcard about the boyfriend’s e-mails, for example, is so effective in representing the panicked nausea that the writer is feeling. The tracing of the jagged tracing of the toilet enhances the writing style and word placement and brings her emotion to the surface. You can almost feel the sickness with her.

This also applies to the unhappy wife postcard. Your eye focuses right in on the eyes and smile drawn over a fuzzy face. Even before you read the text, you get that gnawing feeling in your gut of sadness and insecurity sitting behind that fake smile. The words then complete the picture.

What’s Your Favorite?
If you have a favorite Post Secret postcard, let me know which one and why it’s your favorite. I think it would bring up some wonderful insights from a design and general point of view. Post Secret regularly displays new postcards, so check back often.

Epilogue: After my Post Secret adventure, I did spend a considerable amount of time exploring City Lights. The whole place was an invitation to sit down and read. I did. And after much deliberation, I left with a great book about San Fran called “Reclaiming San Francisco“. I highly recommend it.

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