Anne Stark Ditmeyer is an American freelance designer / editor / consultant based in Paris, France whose work has a strong emphasis on connecting creatives across continents.  Anne founded Prêt à Voyager on Bastille Day 2007 as a creative outlet to explore the intersection of travel and design. She has visited 46 of the 50 U.S. states, traveled to over 30 countries, studied abroad and been around the world aboard Semester at Sea. However, for Anne, travel is not about where you go, but how you see the world. Her blog – along with twitter – has become a connective tissue linking her to countless creatives around the world, which is continually challenging her to push the status quo.

Prêt à Voyager [translation: ready to travel] is a platform for sharing experiences from the mundane (capturing French closed in August signs), the quirky (volunteering as a blue haired “kop” in Baltimore’s race to mediocrity – the Kinetic Sculpture Race), the sometimes the extravagant (a trip aboard the Orient Express), and the unexpected (a cameo appearance on the BBC show The Little Paris Kitchen). With countless information written about Paris, Anne’s goal is always to find fresh, creative new ways to share the city she calls home. Don’t miss {Un}Glamorous Paris (a humorous take on the less than perfect moments of living abroad), French Lessons (illustrated vocabulary/cultural lessons), visual Paris Travel Tips and the ongoing Boarding Pass series which explores the how people travel and record their memories.

In 2008 Anne joined the Design*Sponge team as a contributing editor, and has run over 400 home tours from around the world, in addition to numerous other projects, including a video interview with David Lebovitz [see still below]. Anne’s work has appeared in print in Anthology magazine’s “Going Global” issue (Fall 2011), Dwell (Sept 2012), EasyJet (Sept 2012), Kinfolk (winter 2012), Average (forthcoming), and she worked as co art director for the pilot issue of Wayfare magazine (See Jane Fly, Inc), an online magazine celebrating the art of the journey. In May 2012 she was invited to speak on Blog Etiquette & How to Deal with Negative Feedback at The Hive blogging conference in Berlin. Anne has written bespoke city guides for Fortnighter, and is an Ambassador for Vayable, where you can hire her for a custom “experience” the next time you’re in Paris. With ~40 friends & family who visit her in Paris each year, she knows what she’s doing – just read her reviews!

Anne has had the opportunity to collaborate with brands including Air France (TravelBook app promo video), Hotel Negresco (100th anniversary celebration, invited guest), Colonial Williamsburg (press trip), Blog’nhagen (design bloggers exploring Copenhagen), Orient Express (invited guest), Airbnb (curated wishlist), Everplaces (ambassador) and Vayable (ambassador). Additionally Anne has reviewed Plus One Berlin (Berlin stay + local experience), HomeAway (apartment stay in Venice), Roomorma (Berlin Loft), Hotel Jules (Paris) and more.

Let’s work together!

If you are interested in working with Anne on a partnership opportunity, please contact her at the email below. Ideal candidates would be travel-related companies/services and tourism boards. Only opportunities that are considered a good fit with this site will be considered and all sponsored posts are fully transparent and noted at the bottom of the post. These partnerships help make this blog possible. If you have a budget and are looking to pull a creative team together, talk to Anne ASAP! She can help you there too from concepts, to design, photographers, original content and social media exposure. Please note: Blogging takes a considerable amount of time, and most bloggers are professionals in their own domain – photography, writing, design – as well. Please, please, please do not ask bloggers to work for free in exchange for “exposure.” Bloggers have bills to pay too. Along the same lines, creating contests where bloggers create the content [uncompensated] is considered spec work. No thank you. Let’s get creative and make some awesome original content instead! (Just not for free). It can be a win-win for everyone (and you’ll get a great reputation in the blogosphere – we talk and we’re a very connected bunch)!