time to reflect

 
 
 

This project was initiated during the 2020 lockdown. The aim was to use this quarantine to take the time to reflect, share and support one another. The result is a collection of one-off retroreflective postcards by a group of designers/artists/creatives. The postcards were given away through social media and sent to dear ones with a message of support. Scroll down to the end of the page for the full story.

Click on the images to see the retroreflective material light up.

 
 

+ about

For the non-dutch speakers, “het komt goed” means something like “it will all be fine”.

+ about

AIR - Not sharing is caring

The design for this card comes from the realisation that in these current times we are all very aware of the air that we are sharing with everyone else – and this is what I’ve represented with the reflective foil. Previously, sharing was considered something positive and now it is almost forbidden. But well, we still really do need air.

 
 

+ about

The starting point of the project is an invitation to create a postcard by using reflective material. This material is not emitting light itself but simply reflecting that of another light source. It is an almost magical property of the material, yet in our daily lives we encounter something similar almost every day… or in fact every night. This card represents the moon from different angles, and the reflective foil is used to reveal and emphasis the reflective character of this fascinating astronomical body. In a way, the postcard is recreating a piece of the moon, bringing it just a little closer to us.

+ about

Even if you’re lucky enough to have kept health and your job during this pandemic, you may still have lost your sanity. Locked up at home without the usual distractions, the house as well as the mind become a maze without an exit. Confined within and confronted with your own thoughts.

Not just the metaphorical concept of the maze, but also more literal ones followed me around during the lockdown. Not only physically, as I played the childhood classic “De Betoverde Doolhof” with my roommate but also digitally, as I connected with my high school friends to play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 online.

How ironic to escape confinement by voluntarily visiting imaginary mazes! Luckily, this one has an exit.

 
 

+ about

Finding the center of the maze,

Graphite pencil on reflection foil.

15x10,5cm

+ about

The water is always deeper then what it reflects. – Marty Rubin

During the time of the lock down, I took the time to work on patterns, which is a meditative process for me. For the project #timetoreflect I created a pattern inspired by the water, as I really like the double meaning of the world reflect.

 
 

+ about

isole - neighbouring islands of private confinement

+ about

Discover the making-of video via this link

 
 
 
 

+ about

During what I call ‘soft Dutch isolation time’ (because in the Netherlands there’s not really a lockdown situation, but rather a suggestion to stay home) I got deeply connected with my apartment, as many of us did. The unusual shape of this early XXth century sliced flat inspired me for this abstract postcard. I used the apartment layout as a matrix and I covered the rooms with retro reflective material.

 
 
 
 

+ about

The dots reflect all the flowers in my garden. I just bought a second garden home (allotment garden) a few months before the corona-crisis, now I reflect that “it was my best buy ever!” The colors are from the paint-palet I used for my garden house, it's a happy mix of beautiful colors that all have great meanings if I believe @repidadie aka my color-expert! The reflective hearts are an extra boost for the love I get in my garden and that I also wish for the receiver! You can count 26 hearts, which is the number of my garden house. I hope the card will receive a great new owner who can use some extra love these days.

 
 

+ about

Oana Tudose is a Romanian designer based in Romania+The Netherlands and currently developing the project Iele World. This is a research project about reclaiming discarded sheep wool from the countryside of the Romanian Carpathians. In that region, tons of sheep wool are thrown away or burned every year, as a result of poor collective management and the lack of good regional infrastructure. The project iele investigates the potential qualities of this local and undervalued material through design. This card is a reference to the research of Iele World based on mythological Romanian stories and rituals and it is made with reclaimed Romanian wool.

Find out more about the project at iele.world

 
 
 

about the project

In these strange times everything seems to be on hold and this quarantine is for many a time to reflect. As we are all stuck at home, we continue to look for ways to connect with others through alternative routes, mainly digitally. Reflecting, staying connected and sharing are more important topics than ever. This project is about bringing these three topics together in a new way, both in the digital ánd the analog realm.

In my design practice I have been working with retroreflective material for a while. From an aesthetic point of view, this material is best known as the grey stripes on yellow safety jackets, but I’ve discovered that it has much more potential than that. It is time for me to share this material’s potential with other designers/artists: I have invited fellow creatives to use the material to make postcards. The aim is to share, inspire, connect and to literally and figuratively take the time to reflect.

The beauty of a postcard lies in its duality. The front of the postcard is meant to be bold, beautiful, eloquent, thought provoking, for everyone to see. Meanwhile the back often delivers a very different type of message: personal, thoughtful, even confidential. The postcard is an analog means of communication, but its visual character makes it suited for the digital realm as well, and in particular for image-focussed types of social media.


The result of this project is a collection of unique one-off reflective postcards. The postcards are shared on social media and we invite our audience to participate and win a card for a friend. We choose one winner for each postcard and send it to the friend of the winner, with a personal message from the winner on it. 

Postcards are the perfect way to stay in touch and send a heartfelt message to a loved one in these difficult times. They help (re)connect individuals as they are a means to reach out, to stay in touch in a personal way while doing our share of social distancing. Yet as a whole this collection of postcards also creates a larger picture. It represents a collective reflection of our current times. 

With this project, I would like to extend an invitation to take the time to reflect and to reconnect.

For press enquiries, please email to: mail@juliethissen.com

Concept and initiative by the cyclist / Julie Thissen

This project is part of the 1m2 collective.

A very big thank you to all the creatives who are taking part in the project!

And a special thanks to: Mark Terberg, Martina Margini, Leo Duverger, Pauline Thissen.