By the grace of whatever powers that be, I was blessed with a coveted spot in the Spring 2026 security envelope pattern swap, a twice-yearly international snail-mail event for nerds hosted by the Office of Collecting & Design. How it works: each participant receives five names and addresses to send at least five different patterns measuring at least 2 inches square to.
Thrilled as I was to make the cut, I was also stressed the hell out!! I wanted to send samples of less common patterns since most people already have the more common patterns in their collection, and also I didn’t want to cut up (ruin!!) any of my envelopes, an idea that physically pains me. A conundrum. Ultimately, as I flipped through my binder of envelopes, I considered only those patterns that I had at least two envelopes of, so that at least one of each pattern would remain in my collection intact. To the five addresses I received, I sent 2-inch-by-2-inch samples of six different patterns:
On account of the autism, I keep track of where each envelope in my collection comes from (and the date I receive it). I think it’s fun to see which patterns different businesses, organizations, and industries tend to use (the most visually interesting patterns in my collection come from mail sent by government agencies). For the curious, the patterns I sent came from (from left to right): OHSU, Tricare, the VA, the VA, USAA, and USAA.
To date, I’ve received five patterns each from four different people:
Of the 20 samples I received, 10 are new to my collection, and nine of those 10 are patterns I’d not seen before, either in the wild or online.
I loved seeing that orange pattern and the branded ones—so few of the security envelopes I encounter are branded, or are a color other than black, grey, or blue.
It does bother me a bit to have only a small sample of these patterns and not entire envelopes, and also I’m very grateful (1) that sending full envelopes isn’t a requirement to participate because I wouldn’t be able to part with five entire envelopes of five (or more) patterns, and (2) to have been made the cut for this iteration’s swap and to have received each of these patterns. I had a lot of fun participating and hope to snag a spot in at least one more future swap.
See also: the security envelope subreddit, this online gallery of roughly 200 patterns, and this Substack post.