A year ago, I started a side project called Postcard Resistance in response to calls for writing the President and members of Congress to protest several issues. The premise is simple:
All you need are a printer, paper, pen and postage to make a difference.
The site provides several PDF templates anyone can download and print to create four postcards per 8.5″ x 11″ piece of cardstock. The front contains artwork about an issue or general premise, e.g. RESIST.
On the backs, I created form fields where people can easily type up a message and add the name and address of recipients. This allows mass printing of ready-made postcards waiting for a stamp.
My goal was to spin up a simple, responsive site quickly. I decided that instead of creating something from scratch, I would use a template. W3 Schools provides a variety of templates for free. I began with the Start Page Template and modified it with code from another templates to display the postcard fronts in a photo gallery array.
There’s always some code bloat with a template but I was pleased with how efficient the CSS is and the ease with which using a grid-based layout worked. I’m looking at using something similar to update my portfolio site.
The ongoing creative outlet of making new postcards is my favorite part of the project. Most are my ideas but a few were adopted from images on the web and converted from JPGs to vectors for the PDFs. Upcoming ideas include
- Net Neutrality
- Registering to vote
- Retirement cards for MoCs facing reelection in 2018