Back in February, my friend Linzi, a designer at Odopod, was talking about how much she loves sending and receiving things by snail mail. She said it was “like a hug from far away – existing in a tangible object that (she) can’t click a button to accidentally delete.” Laura, another designer from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, thought this was an interesting concept, one that found its way into a perfect personal project: The Craft Swap.

It was simple. We gathered interested friends and colleagues. In early March, every participant received an email with the person they were to make the craft for, and their mailing address. Everyone was given one month to complete their craft, and had to send them out by April 1st.

The theme of this craft swap was “An answer to everyday crisis”. This was perfect because it was something everyone could related to, and could easily be interpreted into whatever the crafter decided. This was meant to give everyone a direction to start from, but wasn’t required to strictly stick to.

I interpreted the meaning of ‘crisis’ as ‘personal crisis’, and wanted to make a book that reminded readers of ways to escape their daily built-up stress. I also wanted to show these solutions through hand-cut peeking holes on imagery that represented stress, sadness, and loneliness.

After some research on book binding methods, I started out by writing the content of the book. Once I figured out the content, I took photos depicting each ‘method’ of escaping everyday crisis, and designed the book. After many trial & error of printing, cutting, and book binding, this is what I came out with:

“25 Ways of Escaping Everyday Crisis”

I also included postcards that displayed all of the ‘methods’ with the corresponding icons.

and stickers of photos of some of the ‘methods’ in the book.

Here are what other participants have made!

“Otter-Tea-Bobbers” by Laura from Crispin Porter & Bogusky

“The Helping Hand Sculpture” by Linzi from Odopod

“Incense Cone Burner” by Bryan from WorkinMan

“Raccoon Hood-Scarf” by Matt from WorkinMan

“Kabloomers (& Horse-Trot Simulator)” by Graeme from Beam Interactive

“Traveling Elephant Bag” by Sue, Linzi’s mom

“Go Go Cocoa! Mug” by Caitlin from WorkinMan

“Homebrewed Bergmann Beer & Mood Setting CD” by Sam from Crispin Porter & Bogusky

Honestly, I was surprised that everyone became committed to making their craft. Having 9 people in this craft swap was a good idea, since we all pushed each other to finish our crafts. Working on this project was something I looked forward to doing everyday, since it allowed me freedom to make anything I wanted to with no client restrictions. The Craft Swap was definitely a perfect way to release my inner creative juice.

For more pictures of my progress work & the final product, check out my flickr set.

Here is the original post of the Craft Swap.