A card for someone far away
Kindnotes is a card you can send across any distance in two minutes: a sealed letter, a photograph, and a voice note of up to a minute, opened as one link on their phone. It is the closest thing to handing them something.
Distance makes the small things heavy: the time zones, the calls that keep missing. A card is different from a message because it is finished. They open it once, and it is a whole thing, made for them, that stays where they can find it.
Say it out loud if you can. The voice note is at the end of the card, after the letter, and it is the part people play twice.
The design for it
The locket keeps a photograph close and hides a folded note; the envelope for the long letter; the polaroid for the one photo that says it. About the locket.
How it works
1. Pick the design
The envelope, the polaroid or the locket. Each one is drawn and animated by hand.
2. Write the note
It sets itself in a handwriting hand and fits the paper. A photo and a voice note if you like.
3. Send one link
It opens on any phone, no app and no account. You keep an edit link; changes go live on theirs.
What to write
Start with one specific thing. Four ways in:
- It's morning here. Here is what I'd say if you were across the table:
- Things I've saved up to tell you:
- I miss the boring parts. Like
- Until I'm back, this is the version of me you get to keep:
Questions
- Does it work in another country?
- Yes. It is a link; it opens anywhere with a browser. There is nothing to ship and no app store.
- Can I record a voice note?
- Yes, up to a minute, on the note step. They play it at the end of the card.
- Will I know when they open it?
- If you ask to be, yes: an email the first time the card is opened.
Other occasions
Updated