NYC Love Note Exchange

The NYC Love Note Exchange is a collaborative letter writing pop-up, for joy and creativity in community. A project by designers/friends: Emma Brigaud, Erica Fink, and Harsha Pillai. In our Q&A with the team, we trace the origins of the NYC Love Note Exchange, talk about what makes a great love letter, and hear where they hope to bring their pop-up next.

How did you come up with the idea of the NYC Love Note Exchange? 
ERICA: Emma had heard of a wine/fondue bar in the West Village that facilitates the secret passing of notes between tables. We were single at the time and, after our evening class, thought it would be fun to see what could come of it. We got creative with the notes but each led to a dead end.

We left without love, without fondue. But we had the taste of this sort of public love letter interaction.

At the same time we were taking a class taught by Sigi Moeslinger & Masamichi Udagawa of Antenna Design while at SVA’s Products of Design program. They’ve designed New York City’s subway cars – the height of public interaction. Tasked with envisioning a sidewalk activation that could stop a New Yorker in their path to interact, we saw this “love letter collaboration” that had pulled us into a restaurant as inspiration. Through prototyping and iteration with our teammate Harsha Pillai, it quickly became something we were energized to build and bring to life outside of the classroom setting.

What makes a good love letter? 

ERICA: Great question. I’d say a good love letter is one that is easy to write. The letter is the outlet for care. The care carries the pen. That became a challenge, though, when designing the Love Note Exchange because participants are writing without a specific recipient in mind. That’s built in to how the pop-up works: write an unaddressed letter and leave it behind for someone else to take for themselves or deliver to a stranger or someone else in their life. That prompt can feel very abstract and get in the way of the charm and authenticity that comes from expressing love to a specific beloved. As experience designers we’re trained to add or remove friction from a process as necessary. So to flip this process back to being an easier one, we added mad-libs prompts to some of the cards. Mad-libs also inspire a randomness that can mimic the nuance of individuality and make it serendipitous for a stranger to find one that resonates.

We’ve also had the chance to revisit favorite love letters as inspiration when we put together a workshop with Romantic Urbanism – like those by Mary Oliver, Audre Lorde, Emily Dickinson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Shira Erlichman. I also love Meg Stalter’s letters to herself and forever swoon at a love letter I once found tucked in as a bookmark in a stoop book. It’s been a treat to go all in on love letters, celebrating them.

In June 2025, we installed the Love Note Exchange at Boyfriend Co-op, the city’s first lesbian-owned cooperative coffee and cocktail bar in Bushwick. In July, we moved the installation to Outlandish, the city’s first Black-owned hiking store in Crown Heights. Were there any interesting themes you saw from the love notes that people wrote at each place? 

EMMA: The most resonant letters are snagged off the board pretty quickly before we get the chance to visit and read them. But from what we’ve seen, these community spaces prompted much more focused messages. Previously, we ran an activation at Flatiron Plaza, and many people wrote notes inspired by New York City, referencing popular landmarks (although I still think about the love note from a grieving daughter). This time, many of the cards were written for a specific type of recipient. And interestingly, there was a pattern of people flipping the card onto the pegboard so that you didn’t see the message but the intended recipient like “First-Time Lesbian” or “Tired New Yorkers”. One big lesson in public design is to predict the unpredictable. Often this is in regards to how someone will treat a structure, but we faced the same open-endedness by crafting mad-libs prompts. I was fascinated to see how various characters interpreted and filled out the same prompt. We noticed people taking greater liberty at Boyfriend Co-op than at Flatiron. From earnest messages about supporting one another to sexual innuendos that would make you blush. 

ERICA: We next installed at Outlandish. A retail store on its face, it’s a place that has enriched my life with more community – whether by becoming friends with neighbors through one of their hosted hikes or chatting up Ken about which book to read next from their favorites shelf. I think having the Love Note Exchange there was a cherry on top of the environment they already have. We included a set of outdoors/trail themed cards for an Open Streets day, and they flew through those. I delivered a note of appreciation myself to Andre at Jenny on the Greens, a few doors down from Outlandish. He connected us with the Brooklyn Public Library to host us next. So, it’s a giant reminder to shop local and know your neighbors and write them love notes.

What do you hope people take away from interacting with the Love Note Exchange? 

EMMA: There’s a third step of the exchange that we don’t get to witness. After the ‘make one take one’, we like to imagine that people tuck the card into a book until they meet their friend for coffee and say “here, this made me think of you”. Or that someone takes the risk and chance to hand a beautiful stranger a love note. Sometimes it’s not about starting a relationship but creating a shared moment of love, support, delight. City life can be so isolating and in an effort to feel safe, we maintain tunnel vision. Yet connection is what creates safety. Instead of silently seeking connection without acting on it, we hope the cards can inspire those who stop by to break the mundane and brighten someone’s day one silly, thoughtful, unexpected message at a time.

I must also include my favorite photo from our first pop-up because what’s a more delightful example of multi-tasking than enjoying a gelato while writing love notes? 

Do you have any future plans for the NYC Love Note Exchange?

ERICA: We’re very excited to be at the Brooklyn Public Library (currently at the Flatbush branch). With each installation, we change up the card prompts. It’s been fun to weave book recommendations and tributes to the space into the love letters. Come visit!

EMMA: Looking forward, we would love to collaborate with like-minded (and hearted) projects, like the Department of Tenderness. Perhaps other public offices like the Post Office could be an opportunity for a moment of delight and love letter writing while waiting in line. We’re also fans of Street Labs and could see the Love Note Exchange integrating well with their mobile structures for street activations around the city.

Dear reader, where would you like to see us? If you have any spots in mind, send us a note! @nyclovenoteexchange