Issue Thirty Four: To Whom It May Concern

Today’s collection is a series of General Post Office “Greetings Telegrams” from the 1930s to 1960s in the UK. Before telephones were widespread, telegrams were the fastest form of communication—and therefore mostly used to share unfortunate news like deaths or illnesses. In the 1930s, telegram usage declined due to the rise of telephones and increased postal service efficiency, so the Post Office sought to enhance their appeal. Greetings Telegrams, the new style of decorative telegram they created in response, came in gold envelopes and featured more upbeat designs, often developed for specific occasions like weddings, holidays, or coronations. I discovered (and bought) these Greetings Telegrams this month at the Bloomsbury Ephemera Fair in London while I was in England to speak at the Birmingham Design Festival. They reminded me how much I love this era of British illustration, and how nice it can be to make the mundane beautiful. It’s also fun to get a peek at what people were writing to each other about in the past…

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Happy Pride! This month’s featured archive is Lavender Zines, an amazing online collection of queer magazines and ephemera from the 1960s. (Thanks to Kyle Letendre for the tip!)

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Yesterday I published an article about what happens when an artist’s individual style becomes a trend. This is an idea that’s been percolating in my mind for a while, and I was really excited to get to talk to heavy hitting style makers David Rudnick, Robert Beatty, Tomi Um, Jen Mussari, and Bráulio Amado for the piece. I’ve also written a few new columns for It’s Nice That this spring, including one about being a hater, and another about why I love signage!