Carte Postale: How a Travel Tradition Became a Brand

Collecting places and things to remember them by

Carte Postale makes illustrated, hand-drawn travel apparel and goods for people who love seeing the world and keeping every place they've been.

I didn't originally start Carte Postale as a brand; honestly it started as a kind of travel tradition.

For every international trip I take with friends and family (30+ airports and counting), I always hand-draw a graphic tee to symbolize what we want our trip to be before we get there, and this became part of the trip itself: original apparel to mark where we were going and our communal memory of having been there. People started asking about them, and not just the people who'd been, but literally strangers and friends-of-friends. They love the feeling it represents: anticipation, being-there, the return nostalgia - even for places they hadn't personally seen.

I also started collecting postcards from every place I visited, then got into full-on travel journaling. (And film photography too.) At some point between a pile of love-worn shirts, sweatshirts, hats and physical travel journals, I realized a good travel piece isn't only a keepsake...it's like a wanderlust postmark. And because I'm always headed off trail and encouraging others to do the same, get lost. became a sort of personal motto.

So, I decided to make these traditions into a real brand and share this love of travel, places, and mementos with the world. 

Because this brand is based on real places and real experiences, here are a few things I care about:

• It's hand-drawn, not slapped on. Every design graphic is original and hand-drawn, built from real details of real places. No AI (ever) or stock graphics with a name under it. The illustration goes through several revisions, and ultimately has to earn its place.

• Made to be collected. The goal is to carry a feeling for every destination, and they add up over time, like stamps in a passport. 

• Quality to keep, not merch to toss. Capsule collections with practical considerations, made to outlast the trip and wear long after you've come back.

• Excitement, memory, and the pull of somewhere else. That's wanderlust, that's nostalgia, that's what we really make. 

The first collection is the Dolomites: Poste Restante No. 1 - a small capsule based on a huge experience. It's called Poste Restante (the mailing address for travelers with no fixed address) No. 1 because there are more places coming. There's always a new part of the world to imagine, to draw, and to wear. 

~ get lost. (with us)