Our Love Letters

We asked people across San Francisco the question, “What makes SF shine?” and collected thousands of responses on shimmering handwritten cards at parks, farmers’ markets, parklets, and plazas.

These golden cards have been turned into an art installation of giant block letters spelling out ‘Shine On SF’, that creates a unique and dynamic portrait of the things residents love about the city.

Collecting Love Letters

Through the work of dozens of volunteers, the cards we collected have been used to build the Love Letters to SF art piece, which displays the cards on giant gold block letters spelling out the message ‘Shine On SF’.

Golden Trees

To gather the golden cards used in Love Letters to SF, we conducted one giant listening exercise through a project called the Golden Trees.

People from all walks of life were asked to answer the prompt “What makes San Francisco shine?” and place their response on card on a Golden Tree. Each site also featured a different craft activity by a local artist, created in partnership with SF Etsy.