Photo Travelogue
from asia to america, without a plane
Role: Book Design
Client: Nathan Ashker
Nathan Ashker decided to quit his job in Hong Kong and head home to America, via eighteen countries around the world — without taking a plane. #AsiaToAmerica: Without A Plane documents his 23,000-mile journey through photographs and short essays.
Project goals
A nod to Instagram
This was during the newer years of Instagram, before influencers, when people connected through Instameet photo walks and following each other through shared interests. Nathan had made many friends through the app (including me!), and met them in real life as he visited different countries. It was an important part of his journey to include, as he got to experience each country locally and gain insight into culture and perspective. He also used the hashtag #AsiaToAmerica for people to follow along on Instagram.
Design
To tie in the significance of Instagram, Nathan kept the hashtag #AsiaToAmerica as his book title and wanted to keep his book easy to hold, not precious, and in a small square format. Other considerations were that Nathan wanted to include maps to show where he visited and to feature the photographs of a few other Instagrammers he got to meet in person.
I approached design with a bold typeface to reflect this bold adventure. I reinforced each nation’s identity by using it’s primary two colors and it’s GPS coordinates. The maps would show points in the country that Nathan had visited.
Layouts were a mix of quotes, anecdotes, and both full-bleed photos and photos with white borders.
