Travel has shaped my thinking more than any formal design brief ever could

Travel has shaped my thinking more than any formal design brief ever could.

For me, travel isn’t time away from work.
It’s part of how our work evolves.

When you’re in a different place, surrounded by a different culture, you start noticing things you’d otherwise miss – how people live, how they use space, what feels calm, what feels excessive, what lasts.

We were in hashtag#Amsterdam recently and visited the hashtag#Rijksmuseum.
We saw these incredibly detailed paintings of flowers.

At first, it felt like colour inspiration.
But the longer we looked, the more it became about texture – the depth, the layering, the way paint sat on canvas.

We picked up a book thinking it would help with colours.
It ended up influencing how we think about surface and texture in rugs.

That’s usually how it works.
One observation leads to another.

Travel also gives perspective.
You see how the world is changing.

Post-COVID, one shift stood out clearly:
People want openness. Bigger windows.

More sunlight.
More air.
Homes that feel breathable.

That changes how you think about interiors.
It changes scale, material choices, and how a rug sits within a space – not as decoration, but as part of how a room feels.

For anyone working in a creative field, travel quietly sharpens judgment.
You absorb more than you realise.
And over time, those impressions guide better decisions.

It’s a privilege to travel.
And for me, it remains one of the most honest ways to keep learning.