Gems Sty

In a similar spirit to projects like PostSecret and 6 Billion Others, Dear God is a project that aims to allow people around the world to share their dreams and prayers - think of it like, peeping at God’s inbox.

Dear God is a global project for people around the world to share their innermost hopes - and fears - through prayer.

It doesn’t matter what your version of God is…Jesus, Allah, Buddha or simply a spiritual universal energy… praying to a higher power soothes and heals. It’s scientifically proven that people who pray are healthier, happier and more resilient.

Share your prayers here and help us create hope one prayer at a time. Simply send us your personal letter to your God and/or a picture that sums up your message visually. (Dear God will source a picture if you don’t have one).

Here’s what the site look like:

Content wise, it shows ordinary folk’s ordinary prayers (often in extraordinary circumstances), highlighting a sense of common emotions/struggles that we all share. However, I do feel somewhat alienated by the presentation.

Visually the website is certainly very polished - the people behind this project are after all a design agency. However, it is this invisible sheen on the site - almost like the shrink wrap around a package - that seem to have made it lose a certain sense of authenticity amidst the postcard perfect (stock?) images. In a way, it felt too - dare I say - polished. That this is a ‘post-production’ piece. Insulated. And perhaps that much less personal and direct.

Contrast this against Post Secret - where the individual postcards were made by those who were praying (or more often, screaming out against an invisible force); or the 6 Billion Others project, where you can actually see the person’s face as they talk about their dreams/struggles into the camera.

I get the feeling that the prayers on Dear God became more like pages lifted off an ad campaign - and that much more superficial, even if the text content is as real as it gets. It also reminds me of a recent post I read on the authenticity of a designed experience - could the slickness and polish that design often (by default) bestow rob the project off its authenticity and impact?

In this case, I think it’s a really delicate choice between the raw and the polished. Sometimes, it is more apt to serve chilled juice in a fancy clear crystal glass on the rocks, topped with the little plastic umbrella and a sliced orange. In other times, it’s just about sticking the straw through the coconut.