Culinary Explorations

A very niche area for those who are really into traveling around the globe is local cuisine and high quality wine. From adventure seekers to romantic destination travelers, variety of options along with an authentic presentation of the food in its own traditional way sounds exciting; and yet adds value to your vacation by transforming it into a journey experience.

Spain…on the road Again is an American food and travel series produced by PBS. The show features Iron Chef Mario Batali, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman, and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. Each episode covers a different region of Spain as the foursome explore the country's culinary traditions and history. What I like most about the show is that it is not focused on a specific subject as many of the similar shows do. It takes the city (or an area) as its base point and reflects every aspect that makes that spot special in an explorer mindset.

Among the various food and travel shows that I like comes No Reservations featuring top chef Anthony Bourdain. As he continues to explore every corner of the globe on his Emmy Award winning Travel Channel series, Anthony Bourdain encounters the weird, wild and downright outrageous personalities and places that help define the international cultural landscape.

Communication Strategy via Art & Design

Art can be described as the expression or application of unique creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form to be appreciated primarily for its beauty or emotional power. The ability to communicate ideas in original and innovative ways is essential for all art, craft and design professionals. In the digital era we are in, potential audiences are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the different forms of communication. And there's a constant need for distinctive and seductive creativity to take attention of target audience.

Communicating different meanings and messages through manipulation of formal elements is the new form of advertising in today's market. So it is a vital point for future brands to differentiate the way they encode their messages as well as the medium through which we receive messages from numerous sources of information. I believe that art in that pure sense is an untouched method of expression that brands haven't discovered as a way of communication. The Artwork Project that I conducted for a huge holding firm in Istanbul last year was exactly aiming this kind of interaction with the brand's potential audience. Expressing the main cause and motive of the business along with the benefits attached to the product or service in the form of art achieved a certain and structured perception in consumers' minds. And yet, an empathy is formed to the brand and its reason of existence. This objective also lies in the heart of many successful Corporate Responsibility (CR) projects.

Art is no longer a subject of discussion among a very small group of intellectuals, and has become an agenda of the public. Thus your audience.