Carl and Elena Schrónez of C8 were recently interviewed by John Maeda for Design.blog. Elena’s statement about travel struck a chord with me:
“I’m a person that values personal growth, and for me, one way to spur learning is to change one’s environment and encounter new situations. We’ve decided to make travel, national or international, a part of our family’s lifestyle, not just a thing that happens when the opportunity arises. To me, it is a way for me to make a habit of refreshing the way I look at myself, the stories I tell myself, the meaning I give to things that ‘happen to me,’ and my place in the larger world.” (Read the full interview here.)
This vision of travel – travel as learning, travel as transformative, and travel as part of a mindful creative process – aligns with my studies and practice looking at the world through design.
Design and travel were fused for me during my recent study trip to Japan. This change in location left me with a refreshed perspective. I saw design ideas wherever I looked: from my tiny, perfect hotel room in Tokyo; to the food I ate and where I found it; to the sensual and corporeal experience of finding my way in a new environment; to the way designers responded to my questions and the questions they asked themselves; and especially to my observations of the spaces, places, objects and services that I encountered. This refreshed perspective applies not only to my design studies but also to my sense of resilience and curiosity as a thinking person in a designed world.
I will be exploring these ideas and experiences further in my upcoming series of posts.
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