Graphic Design Ideas for Tourist Postcards

When postcards made their U.S. debut shortly after the Civil War, their purpose was to let recipients know that the sender had reached his destination safely and to share a glimpse of new vistas the recipients might never see. Today, postcard purchases are just as likely to supplement a traveler's own album of photos and maps. Here are some creative ideas to make your graphic designs stand out in the card rack.

The number of editing features available on photo editing software programs can let you turn any photograph into a "copycat" work of great art. Special effects such as mirage, posterize, paintings, swirl, ripple, spherize and mosaic are just a few of the tools you can experiment with to emulate the style of famous artists. Visit Artcyclopedia (See Resources for details.)

Any photograph you take today can be made to look vintage if you apply a sepia tone to it or turn it into a black-and-white photo. These effects are available on most photo editing software programs and can be combined as collages with text such as "We seem to have taken a wrong turn and are in the 1950s" or "I can't believe how this place hasn't changed."

At websites such as Atlapedia (see Resources for details), you can download maps and trivia from all over the world. For major cities or popular tourist attractions, reproduce mini maps (as long as the street names are still readable) to postcard size. Incorporate one-liner trivia. Another option is to use the image of a busy street with a large red arrow in the middle that points in the direction of the reader and proclaims, "You are here."

Scan a small section from any newspaper, save it to a .jpg and--using photo editing software--diminish the contrast so that it is barely readable. Use this as the "wallpaper" of the postcard and add a center title, "Late-breaking news from ____________." Create fictitious headlines to accompany.

Take pictures of condemned buildings, shacks, tents and kids' treehouses. Turn them into cartoons (courtesy of photo editing software) or black-and-white images with the caption, "Our accommodations were somewhat exaggerated in the brochure."

Scroll through entries at Quote Garden (see Resources for details). Pick one you like and display it as a spiral or as a continuous repeating line for the postcard's background. Superimpose a single color image in the center that relates to the quote (i.e., a sunset, a flower, a dog, a steeple).

Take a picture of a landmark (i.e., the Statue of Liberty) and turn it into four bright colors. Position these on the postcard in a vertical format, like you might see in an Andy Warhol poster. A variation on this is to take the same photo, segment it into four parts and colorize each one. If you're really feeling ambitious, cut a photograph into 16 squares and rearrange them in random order. After affixing them to a card, scan the card and save as a .jpg that can then be printed on postcard stock.

If you're an artist intrigued by illusion, incorporate images of doll furniture, doll houses and miniature villages. Experiment with different ways to make items look as if they're full size. If you want buyers to do a double-take, throw a regular size object into the mix (i.e., your cat, a shoe, a serving fork). Caption it: "We've heard rumors that a giant lives nearby."

If you're good at calligraphy, ask a local restaurateur if you can reproduce a portion of the menu on a postcard. If the owner likes your work, he may just want to sell the postcards in the restaurant for diners to remember where they ate. Also, the purchase of the card at a shop could entitle the buyer to a free dessert if she shows the card upon arrival. Another idea would be to do pen-and-ink sketches of several restaurants on the face of the card and list the restaurants by name on the back.