Nomadic Nature
Travel Book Design - Spring 2010
Whether you travel across the world, or to a part of a city that you never have visited before, there’s something important and magical about finding new situations and seeing new sights.
This thirteen weeks long study focused on the subject of “traveling” and all aspects of going away from your home for a short period of time. I was a student of the Web Design & New Media department and my MFA thesis was about a web application where accommodation owners and accommodation seekers can find each other and agree on short term rentals. The study was done during the conceptual phase of the project.
This book is the result of the study and one of its goals was to emphasize the visual difference between a traveller and a tourist. While travel is often an observational experience, many travelers specifically travel to participate in the action. There’s definitely a difference between traveling and touring. The former requires an authentic interest in new things and an openness and willingness to experience them. The latter is usually limited to “seeing” the sights - often through the lens of a photo or video camera. Tourists tend to gravitate to the familiar for meals and companionship while travelers abhor both, instead going out of their way to meet new people.
This visual study explored the different aspects of travel such as the different accommodations where one can stay, be it a hotel, a cruise ship, or a short term rental; the reasons why one can travel, such as work, fun, family; the rituals one goes through when traveling, like safety procedures on an airport, taking a cab, figuring out the public transportation of an strange city, eating exotic food, taking pictures, buying souvenirs, etc; and the many different places one can go to such as a safari in Africa, a beach in the Caribbean, a hotel boat in the Amazon, a wine tasting trip in Napa Valley, or a week in Paris or London.
