Video: frequent flyers and inspiring travels

It’s movie day at vagablogging. Two very cool videos have floated across our radar in the last week and we wanted to share them with you.

The first is an incredibly well done documentary on the sometimes obsessive pursuit of frequent flyer miles. Even if you don’t have an interest in frequent flyer miles, this one is worth a watch as film maker Gabriel Leigh has done a great job of capturing some of the mystery and appeal of travel, flying and airports.

As noted travel writer Pico Iyer says in the film, “the airport is the perfect microcosm of the city of the future — all the cultures of the world are assembling under one roof, but they’re all walking and talking past one another.”

On one hand that’s incredibly depressing, but on the other, airports do have a certain, if sterile, beauty to them. And while I can’t see myself ever planning trips around accruing a maximum of frequent flyer miles, the film is nevertheless quite beautiful.

The second video is from a TED conference, which is an annual gathering of the “world’s leading thinkers and doers,” discussing everything from their work to global issues. The video below is a talk from designer Stefan Sagmeister (whom you might recognize if you’ve seen the film Helvetica).

Every seven years, Sagmeister closes his New York design studio and takes a year-long sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh his “creative outlook.”

While the talk is mainly concerned with how time off has informed his work, it also indirectly makes a strong argument for using travel to enhance your work, be it creative or otherwise.