By Honorary Reporter Elahe Safaei-Jazi from Iran
Photos = Preeti Rawat, Sanya Bhardwaj and Elahe Safaei-Jazi

Honorary Reporters from India Preeti Rawat and Sanya Bhardwaj used messages from fellow Honorary Reporters from around the world in their recent project of using postcards to thank Korea.net managers and staff. I also took part in this project.

The following is the Aug. 9 written interview I had with them on the project.

Honorary Reporters from India Preeti Rawat and Sanya Bhardwaj put this project together.

Rawat, one of last year's top 100 Honorary Reporters, joined the ninth class of the group in 2019. Bhardwaj was part of the 10th class the next year and the winner of last year's Hangeul calligraphy contest, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Korean Culture and Information Service and Hangeul Day.

This design is by Sanya Bhardwaj.

Inspiration for project
On how the idea for the project came about, Rawat said, "I sincerely appreciate the efforts and hard work of the managers. I knew that other Honorary Reporters felt the same way, so I decided to create a small project. I shared the idea with Sanya Bhardwaj, whose input and efforts helped shape the final product."

Bhardwaj added, "Initially, Preeti reached out to me over Instagram suggesting a multi-dimensional project inviting older Honorary Reporters to express their gratitude to our managers through messages, artworks or voice notes. After some brainstorming, we decided on a big printable poster that the managers could put up in their office."

"Later, the idea of digital postcards popped into my mind. I think postcards and letters are more personalized and bring a warm and heartfelt feeling to the receiver, which was exactly what we wanted to send to our managers."

Process of pursuing project
Bhardwaj said collecting, compiling, editing and designing the postcards took around two months, adding, "There were some hurdles such as the languages the postcards should be in, so we decided to go with English and Korean to simplify and streamline the project."

Sanya Bhardwaj designed this postcard to thank Korea.net's managers of the Honorary Reporters program.

Bhardwaj mentioned the use of vintage and modern elements, saying, "We wanted the messages to take center stage in this project, so taking a minimalist approach with both vintage and modern elements, a simple handwriting-like typeface and some Kocnuni (Korea.net's official mascot) stickers from my previous project I made the base template for each postcard."

Positive feedback
Rawat said, "When we started, our sole intention was to thank the managers. But I was happy to see many Honorary Reporters on board. I'm glad everyone thought that it was meaningful and could share their appreciation for the managers."

Bhardwaj added, "Many Honorary Reporters expressed gratitude to us for bringing their messages together in a single project. I received a personal message from the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico thanking us for the project. The managers at Korea.net were also very appreciative of and overwhelmed by the messages."

The postcards and messages of Honorary Reporters participating in this project can be seen in the following link: https://www.instagram.com/koreanet_globalhr/.

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.