Ever dream of using an airplane as a canvas for your artistic prowess? Even if you don’t aspire to design the paint job of jet aircraft, Boeing’s “Design Your Own Dreamliner” page is a fun time waster.
The site allows you to pick from numerous symbols, shapes, backgrounds and colours to make your own wicked looking airplane. You can also add your own text, so the body of your plane could read, “My Dreamliner rules, your Dreamliner drools!” Actually that’s not very clever, I’m sure you’d come up with something better.
When you finish your design you can submit it to Boeing for approval. Just keep in mind someone’s already made a Rudolph plane.
*Have you already designed your own Dreamliner? Share the finished product with us on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks to this map, we’re now pretty stoked about the idea of playing trampoline dodgeball in San Francisco. This hand drawn beauty by Gaby Florez-Estrada (click-through for more detail) is one of many on the awesome website They Draw and Travel.
The concept behind the site is pretty simple: artists express their passion for an area by drawing a map, and readers discover cool stuff in those areas by looking at the maps. Artists have created hundreds of maps for the site (including a pretty cute one for Antarctica). You can print maps directly from the site, and often you’ll find a link to where you can buy a copy of the map as well (you should definitely consider buying Gaby’s maps via A la Carte Maps).
Swann Auction Gallery’s annual Rare and Important Travel Poster sale was full of neato vintage Canadian bid bait this year. Travergence is a travel company with roots in Canada (we are in the U.S. too!), so naturally we got a little geeked when we saw these posters.
It looks like we could have got a bit of a deal if we’d entered a bid (the auction was held two weeks ago). None of these posters came close to the top lot—which was a 1912 Titanic poster that went for $72, 000. The Canadian poster that was assessed at the highest amount didn’t even sell. Is this proof that Canada is priceless? Maybe …
If third grade art classes were made to produce infographics, they’d probably look a little like this (except the focus would likely be on the nuclear family rather than travel). Although it’s a little hard to follow, I love this amazing infographic from Rove Magazine. Kevin Landry, the creator of the infographic, says “Infographics probably only look cool when they style looks better than something you could draw yourself.” Don’t be so hard on yourself Kevin, you’ve done alright with this one.
How far is fantasy from reality in the travel poster art of Steve Thomas? Sorry to kill your dreams, but zip lining through the asteroid belt and skiing on Pluto probably aren’t in the cards (unless you want to rake your skis on nitrogen ice).
The North Pole and Rivendell though? Not a problem. Getting access to the assembly line at Santa’s Workshop might be an issue, but the opportunity to snap a picture with the world’s largest fiberglass Santa is only a trip to North Pole, Alaska away! Visiting the actual North Pole, however, remains a bit of a fantasy, as tour costs range from $20,000-$30,000.
Rivendell has been turned into a real travel destination by countless New Zealand tour operators. You’ll likely feel a tad gypped by the lack of elvish architecture, but at least the real-life Rivendell is free from Orlando Bloom’s horrible acting.
If there is a queen of map art, Susan Stockwell is probably it. Her portfolio includes some seriously ambitious work that includes a world map painted with tea onto tea bag paper, and a Victorian style dress made from maps of the British Isles.
Her latest piece is a massive world map fabricated from recycled computer parts. We think it’s pretty neat. You can find more pictures of it here.
