Some call it a vacation, some call it research.

While I enjoy travel as a break from the ordinary and a chance to relax a little bit, I think it has a very important role to play for those in the creative field. Try as I might, I often find that I stop seeing things when I am stuck in one place for too long. Sure, I see the beautiful sunset or the street art, but I seldom stop to look at it and really take it in. This can usually be tracked by a steady decrease in Instagram submissions (@source4man). This is where traveling is a life saver for me. It takes me out of the ordinary and into the new and the extraordinary. It's kind of a reset button for paying attention to the world around me, which is so easy to lose in this world of TV and internet.

For a designer and collaborator in theatre, the world around us is one of the most important resources we can use when looking for inspiration and parallels between the world we create onstage and what we experience in our own lives. I'll just share a few of the things that I found inspiring and wonderful from my recent travels.

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