IDEO Eyes Open City Guides.
I have a weakness for well-designed books, so you can imagine my excitement when Mark of Chronicle Books contacted me about the soon to be published IDEO Eyes Open city guides by Fred Dust. My wait ended yesterday afternoon when I received both the New York City and London guides in the mail.
My initial response? WOW. The type, the photography and the layout are all extremely beautiful and immediately sucked me in. This is definitely my kind of guide book – one that takes you to the cool little places you’d otherwise spend your entire trip trying to discover. These guides aren’t for the sightseeing crowd, but rather those who want to really discover their surroundings like a local looking for inspiration in the every day. To the casual observer the book doesn’t even make you look like a camera-toting tourist, which is a huge bonus in my eyes. There’s also a fantastic complimentary site to the books, check it out here.
What were some of my favorite spots, you ask? Let me share…
NEW YORK
• MetroNaps: mid-day shut-eye in the Empire State Building
• StoryCorps: a national project to instruct and inspire people to record each others’ lives in words
• BAMN!: an automat of food for people on the go (or on the drink)
• Rice to Riches: rice pudding heaven
• GrandOpening: currently a ping pong parlor – but come July that’ll all change!
LONDON
• Dans le Noir?: a dining experience in total darkness
• Harvey Nichols Foodmarket: top quality food with amazing packaging design
• Hayvend: vends specially produced artworks, smaller than the average slice of bread
• Cafe Kick: foosball cafe
• Electric Cinema: nique cinema experience with original interior and luxurious leather seating, footstools and tables for food and drink, and a bar
Anonymous
March 13, 2008 at 7:40 pmThe book sounds fantastic!!! The graphics especially appear to incredible!
Sara Christine
March 13, 2008 at 11:21 pmWow these are AWESOME. I’ve never seen a travel book quite like them. I want one for San Francisco!
On a side note, we have MetroNaps nap pods at my office. Ridiculous…
Anonymous
April 4, 2008 at 7:27 pmreally? the places featured in the book are pretty well known and uninspired, frankly. not that they are bad places to go but come on, schillers? sahadi’s? jack spade? magnolia? the earth room? pretty graphics and cute maps unfortunately isn’t enough to make a better, more “innovative”, or experiential guide book. over branded and not so interesting.