Before I designed Holbrook Travel's website, I spent four years as its in-house designer, making everything a traveler holds before, during, and after a trip.

Holbrook has run educational and nature trips since 1974. From 2012 to 2016, I designed its print and web marketing: trip flyers, catalogs, mailers, a microsite, and the small pieces that arrived after a trip. Looking back, the work follows a traveler from the first flyer to the next booking.

Choosing a trip

Many Holbrook trips ran with partners, like an Audubon society or a nature photography foundation. Each trip got its own flyer, built on one layout: a big photo, the partner's name, the dates and land cost up front, then the highlights.

Trip flyers: Birding Belize with the San Diego Audubon Society, Alaska with the NANPA Foundation, and Ecuador and the Galápagos.

Seasonal pieces sold a kind of trip rather than a single one. The International Garden Series set three trips against watercolor washes, and an ad for birding, marine, and wildlife programs led with a world map and a register-by-October offer.

The International Garden Series, and a birding, marine, and wildlife ad.

The Friends & Family catalog collected small-group trips into one book, from the rainforest at Holbrook's own lodge in Costa Rica to the Galápagos.

The Friends & Family catalog.

One country, in print and online

For schools, Costa Rica was the flagship destination, so it got its own catalog and microsite: "Costa Rica: The World's Greatest Classroom." Both organized the country the way a teacher would: by the numbers, by ecosystem, by national park, and by subject, from biology and marine science to service learning.

The Costa Rica K-12 catalog.

National parks, and where to find them.

The microsite: Costa Rica, Why Costa Rica, Why Holbrook, Educational Connections, and Let's Go.

Getting teachers to book

Teachers plan school trips months ahead, so each fall a mailer reminded them it was time to book spring break and summer. Inside, "why Holbrook" became a winding path of reasons (custom trips, 24/7 support, teachers travel free, curriculum-based content), next to sample trips to Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Belize with their prices. The outside used flat illustrations of students in the rainforest to get it opened.

Inside the K-12 mailer. The outside is the cover of this post.

After the trip

The relationship didn't end at the airport. Travelers came home to a welcome-home card and a postcard from where they'd been. Then came reasons to go again: why booking early means more flexibility, lower costs, and fuller groups, and a list of where to go next, region by region.

Welcome home, ready to go again, and where to next.

Five-star trips earned a certificate of excellence, and travel vouchers at events Holbrook sponsored, like the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, brought in new travelers.

A certificate of excellence, and a $500 travel voucher.

All year

And every year there was a calendar. In 2014, Holbrook's 40th year, each month paired a traveler's photo with the story behind it.

The 2014 calendar.

After the new website launched, its look carried into print too: the student and higher education catalogs, the 2017 calendar, and email.

Global Expeditions for Students & Educators.

Higher Education Academic Field Expeditions.

The 2017 calendar, and email.

None of these pieces was a campaign on its own. Together, they kept a small travel company in touch with its travelers for years. That's also why, when it came time to rebuild the website, I designed it as a system.

A website that lasted ten years →

Design by me, in-house at Holbrook Travel, 2012–2016.