Hong Kong’s city face is a concoction of new and old world. The streamlined skyline and glossy buildings made me feel like I was in an enchanted steel forest, yet walking around within its city roots I was confronted with the scents of traditional medicine shops that displayed open-dried seafood and tea stores that offered leaves from century-old recipes. A day trip to Chueng Chi Island was a visit to a fisherman’s traditional village where my sister and I ate the best Dim Sum in a small shop hosted by elders. For the first time on the trip we dipped our [View Full Entry]

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There are three photo pages in this entry This is a visual narrative of a trip that had been in the planning stages for several years—a plan between father and daughters that finally manifested on August 3, 2007. Ida, my sister Sonja, my father Klaus and myself arrived in Hong Kong after a 14-hour flight. It was 5am while we roamed an empty airport waiting for our final connection to Ho Chi Minh City and anticipation kept us from snuggling in a quiet corner to nurture a flight-less sleep. With new markets to explore, food to experience and a rebirth as [View Full Entry]

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My father lived here for fours years in the early 1970s, and the seven-hour road trip was dedicated to thoughts about his past. We are a very close family with a lot too say and share. Hearing our father talk about Vietnam was a long time coming. Da Lat had an eclectic impression. We witnessed a reunion through the son of my father’s sensei from Da Lat’s Judo Club in 1969, as well as, the building that still stood where my father worked. The city also supported kitsch amusement that included an oversized pig sculpture at the Valley of Love and [View Full Entry]

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Our travel course began on June 27 as students checked into their rooms at the City University in the Islington area of London. We took a misty 2-hour night walk past St Paul’s Cathedral, over Millennium Bridge and onto the Embankment where we sighted some of London’s most popular landmarks. The following morning was officially our first class in a café two blocks from student accommodations. We reviewed the syllabus, seminar schedule, conducted a travel guide assessment, lectured on Design as Improv: Case Study on Designers and Focus Groups and assigned city ethnographies. [View Full Entry]

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We took a two-hour train ride from Paddington Station to the Legible City of Bristol, designed by graphic designer Tim Fendley. The city welcomed us with you are here and walking maps, directional signage on every corner, type design with expert consistency and a color palette that would make your mouth water…oh yes, and rain—lots of it. [View Full Entry]

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We held class in a bakery and enjoyed fresh scones, coffee and tea with our first seminar on The Significance of Isotype written by Michael Twyman. After a brief break, we discussed the reading on Serifs, Sans Serifs and Infant Characters in Children’s Reading Books written by Sue Walker and Linda Reynolds. The afternoon was free for more sightseeing, shopping on Oxford Street and getting intimate with the London Underground. The following day we met Alex Dale at the Design Museum on the east side of the Embankment. Alex Dale is an information designer and wayfinder for [View Full Entry]

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The city of Reading was only a short 30-minute train ride from Paddington station. We arrived to a downpour of rain, so instead of the ‘walking tour’ of Reading, we took a taxi to the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. We were welcomed with tea, coffee and biscuits, and a schedule that included an introduction from Paul Luna, Everyday Wayfinding lecture with Paul Stiff, Isotype lecture with Michael Twyman and a design studio presentation by Mark Barratt of TextMatters. After six hours of visiting, we walked the same [View Full Entry]

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July 3 and 4 marked the first free days from the classroom. Students visited Tate Modern, London Eye, Tower of London, shopped (again) on London’s high streets and had an opportunity to take day trips to Bath, Stonehenge or Brighton. Included in their curriculum was a day trip to Oxford. The photos below show Sonia and I spending our free days in Paris. Last time we were there was for the chilly celebration of the 2004 New Year’s holiday. We did not miss an opportunity to see some of our favorite sites in warmer weather and under some sunshine. [View Full Entry]

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There are two photo pages in this entry Much of the morning on July 5th was spent in transit from London to Munich. After a three-hour flight we were in the glory of the wayfinding and signage system of Munich Airport was originally designed by Otl Aicher and Eberhard Stauss, then updated by Koch and Partner. My driving skills were put to the test when we rented a nine-person ‘bus’ from the airport. It took teamwork to navigate the German road sign system, including the GPS we eventually named Julie. We made our way to Pension Flor, followed by free time [View Full Entry]

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We anticipated a slower routine in Vienna, Austria. Class was held everyday from 9am until noon with seminars in the first half and finishing with project critiques. Seminars included reading and discussion on The Psychopathology of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, The Public Debate on Jock Kinneir’s Road Sign Alphabet by Ole Lund, The Warsaw Subway Signage System by Roman Duszek, Terminal Signage: Buildings Don’t Speak for Themselves—an interview with Paul Mijksenaar by Lawrie Hunter, Human Wayfinding and Cognitive Maps by Reginald Golledg [View Full Entry]

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