The following article by Mark Busse was published in March 2013 on www.designedgecanada.com.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”—Mark Twain
I don’t care what prestigious school you attended; your design education is incomplete without travel. Lots of it.
My industry friend Nick Black, who leads the team at Concerto Marketing Group, recently told me his company strongly prefers hiring creatives who are “third culture kids”—a term I admit I wasn’t familiar with. Similar to what sociologists call “global nomads”—those who hop from one place to another without a permanent home—third culture kids are people who have spent a considerable portion of their formative years outside their parents’ country or culture. They typically have relationships with multiple cultures, often without entirely fitting into any of them, resulting in a unique way of interacting with the world. Perhaps you’ve met a military brat or diplomat’s child who grew up abroad—those are third culture kids.