Posts in the Travel Illustration + Design category

Fifty and Fifty – The State Mottos

It’s always interesting, I think, to see how various destinations view themselves and how they project that identity to the outside world. The idea of having a State Motto for example, seems a bit quaint these days, too ‘one-size-fits-all’ for our times. But this sense of nostalgia fits perfectly with the vintage inspired style of designer Dan Cassaro, the curator of  50 and 50: The State Mottos. For this rather epic project, Dan has carefully selected a band of illustrators from around the country, each of whom have taken on the task of representing their home state by illustrating its State Motto. 

Here’s a small selection of my personal favourites, but you can see the rest on the website and even buy a print if you’re feeling patriotic.

From top: New York by Dan Cassaro, Vermont by Always with Honor, Montana by Travis Cain, Louisiana by A Micah Smith, New Hampshire by Jarrod Baretto, Washington by Annemieke Beemster Leverenz.

Secret City

I bought Port magazine for the first time the other day, and was really impressed by the travel illustrations by Dan Williams. They feature in the regular Secret City feature, where interesting people from around the world recommend a favourite local spot. There is just something old-fashioned and almost anti-trend about them that appeals.

Live the Language

About a year ago, EF (a study abroad program) put out a bunch of really nicely made commercials under the slogan ‘Live the Language’, highlighting cities around the world. They got a lot of attention at the time, so you might have already seen them on various design blogs, but anyway, they’ve just released three more so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and share the Vancouver, Sydney and LA ads with you.

I love the typography by Albin Holmqvist – if you look to the right, I actually did something similar (without having seen these videos) on Skip Town’s side buttons!

EF – Live The Language – Vancouver from Gustav Johansson on Vimeo.

EF – Live The Language – Sydney from Gustav Johansson on Vimeo.

EF – Live The Language – LA from Gustav Johansson on Vimeo.

On a related note, Designers Couch have rounded up a whole heap of other language school advertising campaigns here.

DIY Postcards

Have you ever tried making your own postcard? Drawing may be the most obvious medium, but personally, I collect so many flyers, packages and magazines that it makes sense to record my trips through collage. In fact, along with eye mask and mints, I always have mini-scissors and a glue-stick in my travel pack.

I’m in the midst of rounding up a whole bunch of DIY postcards, and if you’d like to be included, or if you know of some great examples, please email hello@skiptownonline.com. To get the ball rolling, here’s a postcard I made years ago, when I was SO excited about completing my first round-the-world trip. I’m SURE there are so many better attempts out there, so please, show me!

Kenyan Bicycle Taxis

A little bit wonderful, right?

*James Mollison for Colors Magazine, via NY Times

Illustrated (Modern-day) Tourism Campaigns

A while ago I featured some very charming ‘See America’ illustrated tourism posters from the 1930′s, with the promise to see what modern-day examples I could later dig up. Illustration is something that isn’t too common in tourism advertising these days, especially for the mainstream market. Even so, I managed to find a few great examples.

This Taiwan branding campaign by Winkreative features the illustrations of Japanese artist Satoshi Hashimoto. I like it a lot, but I don’t know if I can see many other countries taking a cartoon-style approach like this for their nation-wide tourism identity. I mean, Australia never would!

But, having said that, here’s another ‘cartoon-style’ approach for the city of Montreal in Canada, albeit with a very different personality. This campaign (by agency Sid Lee) focuses on the 106 festivals that take place in the city each year, and features a motley collection of imaginary hybrid animal mascots. I don’t think I like it much visually, but apparently it got a lot of attention at the time, and even scored an article in the NY Times. Here, the creative director of Sid Lee made the interesting observation that “in the overcrowded tourism advertising category all the destinations are marketed in the same way” using photographs of “pretty people in a restaurant or skyline shots.” She went on to say that “The language in the tourism industry is ‘a hardware city’ versus ‘a software city,’ and destinations like Paris and New York, with well-known buildings and attractions, are “hardware cities” while Montreal, which is sold on “more of a vibe,” is a “software city.” Good on them for trying something different, I guess!

*images via Tailored

So those are a couple of highly-visible campaigns directed at the general public, but if you dig a little deeper you start to find some wonderful, more boutique, tourism illustrations. Monocle in particular is brilliant at commissioning artists to create illustrations for their destination coverage. Interestingly, they often have an old-style look about them, recalling the ‘golden age’ of travel from the 1960′s and earlier, and taking us back full-circle to the vintage tourism posters that originally caught my eye!

*Spain illustration by Lab Partners for Monocle, via Creative Roots.

*Sao Paulo map by Ty Wilkins and Brent Couchman for Monocle, via Creative Roots.

*Illustration for Star Alliance and Monocle by Satoshi Hashimoto, via Frog & Princess.

Souvenir still lifes

While unpacking boxes upon boxes of stuff at the new place, I came across my battered and beloved shoebox full of travel paraphernalia. Flyers and fabric, booklets and bank notes, trinkets, coins, packaging, tickets… in short, junk. But special junk… to me anyway.

I spread it out over the lounge room floor and picked out certain things to share with you. Seeing it collated and photographed like this, I suddenly remember why I keep it. What do you collect on your travels?

United States of America

Japan

Europe (various countries including France, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey)

Illustrated America

There is a great selection of vintage travel posters for view over at the Library of Congress website. Here are a few that caught my eye, all promoting the United States in the 1930′s. Such beautiful artwork… you certainly don’t see tourism promotions like this anymore. I suppose the rise of photography made most travel illustrations redundant. Does anyone know of any modern day illustrated tourism campaigns? I think I’ll investigate!

Walkabout Geographic Magazine, 1938

Remember that magazine I picked up at Salamanca Market?

Walkabout was, according to Wikipedia, an illustrated magazine published from 1934 to 1974 combining cultural, geographic, and scientific content with travel literature. This winter issue from 1938 has some fantastic old advertisements (Tasmania is an “all-the-year-round holiday resort”, apparently) combined with some really classy layouts and graphic photographs. I especially like the photo of the “Sooty Terns”!

Seeing all this makes me want to time travel. If you could, where (and when) would you go?