CareLab | Sofia Kavlin: Strategic Designer & Maker - CareLab

Image Credits: Art in Odd Places 2024

Sofia Kavlin: Strategic Designer & Maker

Storytelling and participatory design to foster cultural shifts and drive social impact.

Spring 2025

Sofia Kavlin is a strategic designer and maker creating transformative connections through narrative and art. She specializes in storytelling and participatory design to foster cultural shifts and drive social impact. Sofia graduated from the Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons in 2024, with a thesis exploring cultural influences on body image and individual aspiration against the concrete backdrop of New York City.

Lecture Overview

Jody Wood and Michele Kahane co-hosted Student Explorations in Care to highlight some of the ways students were exploring the role of art and design in creating more caring and inclusive communities, cities, organizations and systems.

Sofia introduced the Unsent Letter Mailbox, a constructed wooden mailbox that invites the people of New York to write an anonymous letter, drop it in the mailbox, and read one written by someone else. It was designed as an antidote to an online obsession with curated feeds and fast replies, encouraging unspoken thoughts and raw truths that might be shared.

Sofia’s Unsent Letter Mailbox project was part of Art in Odd Places 2024 festival on Care and has since been featured on the Kelly Clarkson Show and NBC News.

The Unsent Letter Mailbox, in conversation

Good News: Anonymous letters bring out deep feelings in those who write and read them

Image Credits: Unsent Letter Mailbox

Guest Speaker

Sofia Kavlin

Instructors

Michele Kahane
Jody Wood

Keywords/Tags

connection, anonymous letters, analog, unspoken thoughts, raw truths, deep feelings, community, sharing, mailbox

Other Resources

Sofia Kavlin Portfolio

Unsent Letter Mailbox

Kelly Clarkson Meets Creator Behind NYC's Unsent Letter Mailbox

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