From Pioneertown to Yucca Valley to Landers on to Joshua Tree – here’s a collection of what I saw while docenting for PS Mod Com’s High Desert Tour 2012 in Southern California’s eastern Mojave Desert.
First stop was La Haut Desert Aerie. Nestled in desert landscape is a hand-hewn home with a collection of hand-painted ceilings – some in the North African Berber style and hand-stamped walls reminiscent of Moroccan zillij. The floors are a brilliant kaleidoscope of colorful tiles.
My newest graphic design project is a set of greeting cards for the Desert Star. The hotel was designed by local Palm Springs architect Howard Lapham in 1954.
My intent was to give card’s recipient the sense of arrival that he or she would have upon entering the property, that feeling of anticipation of a long-awaited vacation.
The front of the card showcases the exterior street view of the Desert Star.
Then when opened, the hotel’s inviting courtyard is revealed.
When I travel, one of my favorite activities is to escape from the well-trodden tourist paths and seek out the side streets and narrow lanes less taken to experience the essence a city.
The following pics were taken on one such diversion in Prague on a beautiful spring day while searching for a laundromat.
A narrow lane zig-zagging up to the castle lined with blooming pots of geraniums.
A grandmother anxiously awaiting the arrival of her grandchildren.
A baroque church spire poking through the newly-leafed trees.
A stout Communist farm labouress confronted me when the back street I was exploring deposited me smack in the middle of Wenceslas Square.
Crossing through the Jewish Quarter I stumbled upon a thought-provoking statue of Franz Kafka by Jaroslav Rona.
Discovering a city in a very personal way, is the way I like to travel.