Visual Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico
November 24, 2014[ssba]
ImageThink was traveling west this fall. And we had the chance to visit Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the United States. And we took our own notes about what we can learn about visual communication in this vibrant historic city.
The city of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo Indian villages with founding dates between 1050 to 1150. One of the earliest known settlements in what today is downtown Santa Fe came sometime after 900. A Native American group built a cluster of homes that centered around the site of today’s Plaza and spread for half a mile to the south and west.In 1610, Santa Fe was made the capital of the province, which it has almost constantly remained, making it the oldest state capital in the United States. The city is well known as a center for arts that reflect the multicultural character of the city; it has been designated as a UNESCO Creative City in Design, Crafts and Folk Art.
Besides the countless galleries, many of the old city streets provide rich resources for visual learning on color, design, and typography.
With a closer look, the city is full of symbols, patterns and shapes! A visitor here is granted the opportunity to ingest diverse visual knowledge that is scarce in huge metropolitan cities such as New York.
And of course, in time for holiday shopping as well.
We also stopped by the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, getting an insight on the artist’s studio and her life’s work.
We hope these snapshots from Santa Fe also inspires your own visual journey, it is very fun to take notice of the graphic elements in our surroundings when we travel!