Montreal vs. Belgium

I always think it a bit odd when a city outsources to another place to brand their city. While I understand the challenge of coming up with a strategy when it's something so close to home, I think many destinations miss the opportunity to showcase their own homegrown talent. So when I came across Sid Lee's campaign* for Tourism Montreal, it feels more like insider information from a local perspective, rather than someone else trying to build on stereotypes. (One of the worst examples ever in my mind is the Baltimore "Get in on It" campaign that from a local perspective totally missed the ball and failed to capture the true spirit of the city). Tourism Montreal has big budget videos mixed with low-budget more personal videos to show the city across different levels, and if you check out the videos on the Sid Lee site, I like how they use local expertise and "local insiders" to promote the city. Similar to the Blog Moi Paris project they use these local personalities to help create their content for their blog, building interest for different types of travelers. Perhaps it's because I first discovered the project on Sid Lee's site, and it's their own packaging of the project, but I really like the energy surrounding Tourism Montreal.
Well, there's energy and then there's energy. When Lindsey pointed out the new ThePlaceTo.be campaign for Belgium, I like the idea of the mysterious "where are they talking about" and the subtle .be to represent Belgium, and the use of interesting typography. But overall the campaign feels a little too hip, and flashy, where the website opens with a fun, but big and loud video, and there are so many moving buttons it's hard to know where to click. While I don't mind the idea of having to get a little lost and exploring (it took me awhile to even realize they were talking about Flanders), and maybe it's just me, but I'd like to see these ideas implemented in a tighter more navigation friendly site where there is a basic framework that you can see a bit more while videos are loading and to help establish a bit more hierarchy. Overall it definitely helped peak my interest in taking a weekend trip to Belgium, and clearly my demographic is the target audience, but is it all too much? (BTW, if you're reading this post while at work, turn your sound off on your computer before opening this site!)

Recently I also posted about the Bourgogne "Pas de Touristes" campaign. What are your thoughts on this new style of branding? Seen any other places doing interesting things lately?

* to access project on the SID LEE site go to: work - portfolio - brand communications [bottom] - scroll

{Tourism Montreal images via Sid Lee; sidewalk photo by LostinCheeseland; Place to Be screenshot}

The Communal Table

For me the joy of eating is the act of sharing it with others. One of my favorite trends these days is that of communal eating, shared tables, and eating experiences. Illustrator Caroline Hwang has a new project, Communal Table (that's her work above), which is a new series of cookbooks devoted sharing the love of eating and gathering together. But there's something more about sharing a meal together than just, but it's also about knowledge exchange and often about finding a way to give back. While this series celebrates the art of eating, any money made from each book in this series will be donated to a food-related organization. The proceeds for the first book, A Casual Setting is slated for The Food Trust in Philadelphia.
Outstanding in the Field is a new [to me] event I learned about this week after Jordan posted about it. An event that that's been happening since 1999, this dinner series moves across the US, and hits parts of Europe, as a restaurant without walls taking place in gardens, at vineyards, on beaches and in barns. But the idea isn't just to have dinner, but rather it is their "mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it." Meals include as many local ingredients as possible, and are often prepared by a celebrated local chef. Tickets go fast, so find your closest dinner and get it while it's hot!

Most of my favorite restaurants in Paris take the communal approach, from the classic Le Chartier, where each pairing of tables is filled whether you know your neighbors or not; the charmed Chez Gladine's basque restaurant in Buttes-aux-Cailles, whose red and white checkered table clothes make you feel at home while cozying up to your neighbors; Bob's Kitchen's communal tables where you can savor my favorite Fukomaki rolls and maybe join your neighbor's conversation; even the intimate (aka small!) space of Candelaria means more interaction with those sitting next to you and talking to the people making your food, learning the story behind it. Then there are the famous Jim Haynes dinners which he's been hosting every Sunday for over 30 years, which are designed to bring together strangers over food. Meanwhile Hidden Kitchen, is a more modern spin on the collective dining with friends, old and brand new.

Even the latest OpenIDEO challenge looks at our relationships with food and the ways which we can better connect the production and consumption of food. While still in the inspiration phase, there are wonderful ideas emerging on how we can start thinking differently about food.

La Petite Cuisine à Paris

Friday for lunch I had quite possibly my favorite lunch in Paris ever. The pity is that I can't go and replicate the experience everyday. Rachel Khoo is a talented British chef who I've gotten to know since my arrival in Paris and what I love most about her is she's always cooking up creative food experiences. Most recently in Buenos Aires, Edible Tales is a project that she and Frankie Unsworth have been taking around the world to bring creative meals to new audiences. Rachel's most recent endeavor is La Petite Cuisine à Paris, a bi-weekly pseudo-resto in her petit appartement (room for 2) in order to test out recipes for her upcoming cookbook for Penguin. The idea came about when she realized she'd be testing out loads of recipes, but what would she do with all that food? Limited primarily by the size of her apartment, it became the perfect excuse to use the intimate setting to invite friends and strangers alike to have a good meal (for a suggested donation of 25 Euros). Rachel updates the website regularly, but the best way to stay abreast of openings is by following her on twitter or facebook.
Each meal at La Petite Cuisine à Paris is a 3-course treat of French cuisine. Our menu consisted of tartiflette nests (starter - above), a roasted root vegetable salad with lardons and goat’s cheese mousse (amazing - below), capped with a vacherin hotdog (meringue, whipped cream and roasted rosemary rhubarb-mmm) and served with a bottle of from Christian Alexandre.

Even though I live in France, I must admit there are not many meals that leave me thinking and talking about the food for days to follow. This lunch was the exception. I can still remember every bite and am telling friends about it. I don't cook, but meals like this make me want to put more an effort into trying.
While some may see small Parisian apartments as a downside, I've learned to love and appreciate every quirk and charm. In La Petite Cuisine à Paris, one of the greatest pleasures was being able to watch the chef at work. It also proves that you don't need a giant kitchen to create great results.
If good food wasn't enough, the pleasure of sharing it with dear friends makes it taste even better. It felt extra special going with Elodie Rambaud as she worked as the food stylist for Rachel's first books, Barres de Céréales and Pâtes à Tartiner.
For more from my favorite creative gals, here's Rachel's Boarding Pass and Elodie's Boarding Pass.

Finally, for those of you who can't make it to Paris to dine with Rachel, check out this video that RedVisitor created after their recent visit.
{Top image screen shot from La Petite Cuisine à Paris; all others by Anne/PAV}

Boarding Pass - David Bacher

Despite having never crossed paths while at the University of Virginia, David Bacher and I have the shared history of being proud members of the Virginia Men's Crew team (yes, I was on the men's team). We first met in Paris several years ago where Dave works as a professional photographer, documenting Paris and New York (featured below and will be part of the Arles Photo Festival OFF in the restaurant La Charcuterie from July 3 - Aug 31), "shooting" (in the kindest way possible) reindeer in Sweden, and capturing weddings in France and beyond. Dave has a fantastic photojournalistic eye, and I love the moments and moods he is able to capture. Now to find a French husband, and I'll be the first to hire him! {Merci, David!}

{Paris}

last trip taken:
Dubai U.A.E.

next trip on deck:
Casablanca, Morocco

{NYC}

{Paris}

one place you would go back to again and again:
South Tyrolian Alps, the area around Bolzano Italy. My father comes from this part of the world and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking.

place you'd most likely recommend a friend go visit:
South Tyrolian Alps.

{NYC}

{NYC}

preferred method of transportation:
Foot. Walking is the only way to get good photos. It’s all about wandering and getting lost in a place that enables one to come across unique hidden treasures.

place you've never been but dying to go:
Nepal/Tibet/Ladakh…Himalayas.

{Paris}

place you'd never go back:
Dubai

most memorable trip in 2 sentences or less:
I was in northern Sweden during the winter photographing a Sami reindeer coral. The light, the ambiance, the mysticism cannot be reproduced anywhere else.

{Paris}
{NYC}

how do you prepare for a trip?
Well, I don’t prepare that much because I like to discover on the road. I think it’s better not to have too many preconceptions of a place. I may glance through some travel guides or do a few internet searches for detailed information but that’s about all.

{Paris}
{NYC}

how do you record your travels when you're traveling?
As I’m a photographer it’s mainly with my camera. I do carry a little notebook and jot down things that may catch my attention along the way. The accompanying photos are my travel records of street life in Paris and NYC for example. It’s a long term project that I’m working on. Sometimes I’ll jot down the name of a place or a street corner where I manage to get an interesting shot, but often this is a waste of time because based on my experience the best images jump out at you when least expected. It’s a bit philosophical in a way and merely entails letting things unfold, a bit like life one might say.

{Paris}

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
People in their environment.

{NYC}

{NYC}

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
That’s difficult to say. It depends on each place. I’m not a big fan of taking thousands of photos while working on a personal project. I will clarify that this only pertains to my personal documentary projects. During a full day wedding I may take 1200 photos, which is a completely different way of working as compared to wandering around the streets of Paris looking for those magical moments. Sometimes I might spend 5 hours on foot and only take 10 pictures.

{NYC}

{Paris}

what's in your "designer travel kit" ?
I am not a photographer who carries tons and tons of gear. I like to carry one camera body and usually one wide angle zoom. My preferred lens is the 17-35. I shoot with Nikon.

{Paris}
{NYC}

what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I upload all of my photos to Lightroom and start going through them, completing 2-3 edits.

{Paris}
{NYC}

favorite souvenir/thing to bring back?
This could be anything from a reindeer antler to a nice piece of South Tyrolian speck, which is dried meat somewhat comparable to jambon de Parma.

{Paris}

LINKS:
website: davidbacher.com
weddings: photobacher.com
blog: www.photographer-paris-france.tumblr.com/

Boarding Pass is a weekly column exploring the creative ways people travel.

My Pet Gnome

This week on Design*Sponge Grace invited all the editors to share their pets with the idea pets make a home, and many of us work from home. While I don't have your typical furry pal, I realized my gnome has been accompanying me on my adventures for the past 7 years. It started as a joke when my aunt and cousin visited me when I lived in Paris before, but he's stuck with me as I work to channel my inner Amèlie and live la vie parisienne. So when the lovely Meg and I met up for tea on my birthday a last week, she made my day when she was willing to put up with my quirky ways and help me document my life with my pet gnome. We definitely got a few funny looks but it was so worth it and made my day, so I thought it'd be fun to share a few more pictures from our shoot. . . Bon week-end!
{photos by Meg Gagnard; top image by Meg for D*S}

WHAI WHAI: Play the Storyline Through the City

Recently I've been hooked on The Amazing Race. As if traveling isn't an adventure in itself, the show puts teams up against each other in a trip around the world. Beyond the places themselves, a storyline develops around the cast of characters. While we often are guilty of creating our own amazing race around a city, checking of sights and things to do, I love the way the Italian WHAI WHAI: play the storyline through the city guides embrace storytelling, technology and guidebooks to create a highly alternative guide (and a really cool sense of design - watch both videos!).


More gamebook than guidebook, you can start anytime and the game lasts about two hours and ends when you solve the mystery. Either playing solo or challenging friends, the game can be played on your sofa, but I think we can all agree the real pleasure is getting out and about.

Learn how to play here, and pick up a copy of the book here or download the new app –for Venice or Verona! I don't read Italian, but if my eyes are correct, it looks like there's a New York edition coming. It all reminds me a bit of when I went treasure hunting in Paris...

Images via WhaiWhai. Spotted on Springwise.

Give a Minute!

Ever since working on my thesis, I've found myself evermore interested in cities as a subject for study. I'm currently taking part in a applied design-thinking for sustainability module, and Sharon, Caroyln and I are currently working to rethink public transportation and signage systems in Paris. We're still in the very early stages of our project, but in our research Carolyn came across Give a Minute!, an interesting platform for the public to voice ideas for the city through a digital, shared post-it note. As an initiative by CEOs for Cities and imagined by Local Projects, the site launched in Chicago but has spread to Memphis, New York and San Jose. Specific questions are designed to generate new ideas and the site becomes more interactive as the best ideas get responses from city officials, helping show the value of community participation. I think it's an interesting way to get the general public thinking about what their city and community means to them (and if web isn't your think, you can text your ideas). You can read more about the project on The City Fix and GOOD.

It reminds me a bit of what OpenIDEO is doing through their design challenges (but OpenIDEO is more process-driven. Speaking of which, they launched a cool new brainstorming tool this week.

{top: screen shot from giveaminute.info}

The Travel Journal

Over the weekend my friend Sophie emailed me with a question regarding what to do with all the little things she collects on her travels – addresses, business cards, brochures of favorite places – that she holds onto and can share with friends who are headed to the same place. Currently she uses a binder with plastic sleeves, but figured there must be a better solution, but not sure she has the patience for scrapbooking. I thought I'd share a few ideas that have caught my eye, but I'd love to open it up to your thoughts!
1. I was majorly inspired by yesterday's Boarding Pass with Jodi McKee. Her "mini-books" [top 2 images] that use simple binder rings let you make a book any shape or size, and you can even design your own cover. I love the possibilities of having a map fold out, and it's also a great tangible way to showcase your pictures, which tend to live online these days (for me at least), and even postcards. Here's a whole post about her mini-books, where she credits Elizabeth to turning her onto the idea.
2. For my birthday my friend Elena gave me this awesome new Moleskine Travel Journal/ Carnet Voyage (my friends know me well!). In fact it's so new I could only find the press release on the Moleskine site at first, but you can buy your own here. It's full of practical information, tabs, stickers and places for photos/clippings so you can customize it to be your own travel bible.
3. The next two ideas are from the Design*Sponge DIY archives. The photo above is a DIY Catalogue Project by Grace Light of Poetic Home, that she made as a handmade gift to share her love with her husband using a card catalog generator. While I'm all for love, I thought it could be a cute, old school way to keep your favorite addresses for wherever you live and for your travels. Similarly, the project below for a Vintage Postcard Calendar by Ashley is another clever way to use simple items for storage. I love the idea of using travel-related vintage postcards to divide up each location, and instead of being a calendar, you could keep your favorite recipes from each trip, along with maps and ticket stubs.
I plan on digging through the Boarding Pass archives soon to share more things that people are doing to record their travels, but I'd love to hear your ideas too!

Boarding Pass - Jodi McKee

Jodi McKee is a self-taught photographer who has been snapping pictures since she was six. She also has a knack for collecting travel memories through her really fantastic "mini books." In the wake of Japan, I think it's appropriate that her Boarding Pass is running today, as Japan not only ranks at the top of her travels, but she's teamed up with two other photographers to create "To Japan With Love," a pop-up shop to sell their photos in order to raise money for Doctors Without Borders/IMF to support relief efforts. Thanks, Jodi!

{Jodi, somewhere near Lambertville, New Jersey}

{Jodi at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, Sept. 2010}

last trip:
Quick trip to Connecticut for a friend’s son’s first birthday

{Cape Elizabeth, Maine}

next trip on deck:
Austin, TX & San Francisco at the end of March.

{Japan}

one place you would go back to again and again:
Kamakura, Japan. It's just such a great place. Close to Tokyo & Yokohama, but still a little bit out of the way on Sagami Bay. It's got a surfer town vibe to it and there are so many wonderful temples and shrines. It's really, really lovely.

{Kamkura, Japan}

place you'd most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Kyoto, Japan. A gorgeous Japanese city full of beautiful temples and shrines. Also, my current home, New York City (I make an excellent tour guide).

{Ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island}

preferred method of transportation:
Train to get from point a to point b and walking by foot while in a new city.

{Seattle}

place you've never been but dying to go:
Paris, Thailand, London, Amsterdam, Ireland, Vietnam, Italy, Australia . . . the list is endless really.

{Seattle Public Library}

place you'd never go back:
I haven't been to enough places to name one that I wouldn't return to.

{Seattle}

most memorable trip in 2 sentences or less:
My first trip to Japan, right after I graduated from high school, where I traveled with other students to Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Nagano and Tokyo. The world suddenly felt so big, and I felt so very, very small.

{ACE hotel, Portland}

how do you prepare for a trip?
I read as much as possible. Personal blogs are my favorite, but I am known to check out heaps of travel guides from the library. On a trip to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, the most valuable thing was asking opinions from people I knew from online that live there. I love good tips from locals. From there, I write up tentative itineraries and try to pack in as much as I can, while still leaving some room for flexibility and getting a little bit lost in a place.

{Jodi & Chris at Multnomah Falls, Oregon}

how do you record your travels when you're traveling?
Mostly by taking hundreds of photos. Sometimes, I jot down small notes here and there. I also collect any paper goods I can get my paws on (receipts, tickets, menus, postcards, brochures, etc.). On our Portland/Seattle trip, my husband was good about doing a mini recap each day on facebook, which became invaluable as I later put together a mini scrapbook of our trip.

{Seattle skyline}

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
The details. I love a good font and am often drawn to interesting signage in a new place. Bright colors always catch my eye. Architecture is another favorite. Depending on my mood, I sometimes like to take some sneaky street portraits of the locals.

{Mishawaka, Indiana}

{Philly}

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
Wow. It really depends on the trip. On my Portland/Seattle trip, it was my first time there and I took over 1,000 digital shots, plus several rolls of film. On average, I would say around 200 per day if I am in a new place.

{Portland}

{Old Orchard Beach, Maine}

what's in your "designer travel kit" ?

Always my dSLR (Canon Rebel XTi -- hoping to upgrade soon), some combination of film cameras -- Polaroid SX-70, Polaroid 215 land camera, Holga, Fuji Instax, Canon AE-1 (if i could take them all, i would!); point and shoot camera and iphone; and a small notebook and pen.

{Indianapolis}

{Voodoo Doughnuts, Portland}
{Experience music project, Seattle, Washington}

what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I upload all the photos from my camera to my computer & scan polaroids right away, and occasionally get film developed (I'm notoriously bad at developing film in a timely manner). I upload a few of my favorite shots to flickr and my blog within the first week or so. Depending on where I've been and with who, I will sometimes upload an album to picasa web albums for friends and family to see. My newest favorite thing to do, though, is make a mini scrapbook. I did one for our Portland/Seattle trip and I love it. I've also made seasonal ones for summer & Christmas recently; they are so much fun! I can hardly wait for my next trip, so I can make another one! I didn't start on the Portland/Seattle book until about 5 or 6 months after our trip, but I'm sure my next big trip will have a book made much sooner.

{New York to Maine mini-scrapbook}
{mini scrapbook page: Pike Place market, Seattle, Washington}{Seattle mini-scrapbook}

{photobooth strips from the Ace Hotel, Portland, Oregon}

favorite souvenir/thing to bring back?
Photos, for sure. I love to hit up an old-school photo booth, if there is one in the city that I'm visiting. I usually pick up some kind of paper goods, since they are easy to pack. Maybe a t-shirt or a magnet. I tend to over pack for trips, so I don't always have much room to bring things back with me.

{Freemont sunday market, Seattle, Washington}

if you could live anywhere for a year, where would it be?
I would love to try out living in Australia or New Zealand for a year.

{Tacoma, Washington}

links:

• website: jodimckee.com
  
• blog: jodimckee.com/blog
  
• online shop: etsy.com/shop/jodimckee
  
• flickr: flickr.com/photos/jodimckee
  
• twitter: @jodimckee

Boarding Pass is a weekly column exploring the creative ways people travel and record their memories. A full list of participants can be found on the list to the right.