Welcome to design to explore! This is my first post for this blog and I am oh so excited about it! After traveling, exploring, and designing over the past 4 years, I decided to put all my experiences into words and help people design their perfect exploration.
So I’ll start off by sharing a little bit about myself! My name is Juli and I’m a designer, artist, photographer, dog lover, travel enthusiast, beach bum, and book worm. I have traveled to lots of places around the world and had some pretty remarkable experiences. I am truly grateful for all the adventures in these countries - Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Iceland, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ethopia, Gabon, and the good ole US of A!
The name “design to explore” was born from the idea that as a freelance graphic designer, I use my design jobs to make money to go explore the world. But as I thought more about it, “design to explore” has lots of different meanings to me, just like this blog will serve a variety of purposes.
DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in design your exploration: First and foremost, I want this blog to serve as a resource for anyone trying to book a trip and have the adventure of a lifetime. From booking flights, to hotels, I want to help you every step of the way to make trip planning feel less like a chore and more like an adventure of its own.
Lots of times in my trip planning I would look to instagram or pinterest to figure out what I wanted to do. I felt like lots of pages presented the idea that it is more fun to simply wing it with travel plans and I could not function like that! #sorrynotsorry I need organization, lists, calendars, to-do lists, basically I can be a stickler for schedules and don’t feel comfortable leaving my trip to the power of fate. And it took me a while to realize that THAT’S 100% OKAY! Winging it can often lead to opportunities missed and wasted time trying to figure it out on the fly. Having a plan and structure are totally acceptable, and you can create an epic, wanderlusty trip and still have a schedule that doesn’t make you feel like you are in summer camp.
DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in designing beautiful photographs from your trip: The biggest compliment I get from most of my travel companions is that I give them lots of instagrammable photos. This makes me feel great, but I also know that with a few tips and tricks, you can be equally as good with a camera and collect all thos instagrammable photos yourself.
DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in there is beautiful art, design, and culture all over the world that you need to explore and you can do that from the comfort of your home - courtesy of me :) : There is tons of beautiful art, design, and culture all over the world, and I am here to show it to you via this blog and instagram! Travel photography was my inspiration for all of this and being able to showcase the photos I have taken and curated all over the world, and have a platform to present my personal art and design is what brings me joy.
In the end, I just want to share my creativity, my discoveries, my travel know-how and my observations of the world with you