CREATE
CLIENT MEETING
The RoaD
Less TRaveLeD
The gulf Be Tween The numBeR of TRips
the average person would love to take each
year and the number of times they actually
pack their bags can seem—sadly—about as
wide as the pacific ocean. The reality is most
of us can only manage a couple of jaunts every 12 months, much to our horror. whether
used for food and culture, adventure, sport,
relaxing and recharging, or some combination of all of these, time off is sacred.
© T+L /photo by david alexander arnold
no wonder we spend so much time reading about where we might go next. Travel
journalism not only helps us make the most
of our precious days away from the office, it
also helps us escape mentally when we can’t
escape physically. great photography and
writing in the pages of a travel magazine can
transport us, allowing us to dip our toes in
the water and decide whether a particular
locale is worth a financial plunge and one or
two or ten of our closely held vacation days.
it tips us to a hidden away beach, an unassuming restaurant with an amazing chef,
the perfect outfitter for an outdoor expedition. it also inspires us to travel somewhere
we’d never considered, or to dream of staying somewhere unbelievable that isn’t financially within reach (just yet).
“we wanted to turn the traditional notion
of ‘travel photography’ on its head, and really re-think what it can be,” lawson says of
the redesign. “we are reinventing a style and
an idiom that T+L has created over the years,
for 950,000 people each month,
Travel+Leisure, published by American
express publishing, provides would-be travelers information and inspiration with an
authoritative voice. “our readers love very
clear, navigable, actionable content, so on
the one hand our magazine is very much a
guide,” explains T+L photo editor whitney
lawson. “But they also want an escape …
the sense of having been taken somewhere
and to be inspired. our challenge is to deliver
both kinds of content at once.” Thanks to a
recent redesign that debuted in June, bigger,
more interesting photographs—and more of
them—are helping to lead the way.
The newly redesigned Travel+Leisure
relies on big, bold images that break
with travel photography convention to
deliver a combination of inspiration
and information to its restless readers.
By Conor Risch
© T+L/photo by Monika höfler and Jens schwarz
Above: Design director Sandra Garcia (left)
and photo editor Whitney Lawson of T+L . Left:
The scene at the Toni 2 piano bar in Madrid,
photographed by Monika Höfler and Jens Schwarz.
Opposite page, clock wise from top: The July 2012
cover, shot by Christian Kerber; the opening spread
of a recent story on Madrid, featuring photos by
Höfler and Schwarz; the opening spread of a June
story on Rome, photographed by David Leventi.
