DK Eyewitness Travel is celebrating its 25th anniversary in style--with a stunning makeover that updates the guidebook brand for today's travelers. Known for travel guides whose visually appealing design makes it easy for readers to access all kinds of information about the places they're visiting, the publisher is relaunching the books with what publishing director Georgina Dee calls "the single largest investment" the company has ever made in its flagship series. The aim is to create travel guides that are "as much at home in your bag on your trip as on your coffee table when you get home" and that include information that "has been thoroughly researched, designed with love and will ultimately make your trip better."
The relaunch includes, for the first time, all new photography, new content in the first sections of the book, revamped content throughout and completely updated maps. In addition, the guides are now printed on a more modern, lightweight, uncoated paper that reduces the weight of the guide and, as Dee points out, "makes them much more tactile." The new DK Eyewitness guides have "an inspirational, gorgeous look and feel," are easy to navigate and offer solid, practical information that can be accessed in a variety of ways.
The relaunch has begun with 10 DK Eyewitness Guide annuals this fall (for more on those titles, see below), and by the end of 2019, 44 key titles will have been remade.
While the changes are extensive, Dee emphasized, the DK Eyewitness Guides remain true to the principles that have guided the series since its founding in 1993. They were originally conceived as the visual travel guide that "showed you what a destination had to offer before you went," Dee explains. The company has stayed true to that while having "today's traveler in mind. Our expertise in marrying visuals and text to give the reader multiple ways into the information is still as important to the guides as it was 25 years ago."
The guides' photography--which has always been a key element of DK Eyewitness books--has been transformed, in large part because everyone has becomes used to high-quality photographs in the modern digital era. Thus, as Dee puts it, travel guide photos no longer need simply to show travelers what a destination looks like. Instead photos need "to show what a destination feels likes." With the relaunch, "we have completely brand new photography on every page in every book for the first time," Dee says. "And they are absolutely stunning."
Hand-drawn illustrations are also a key element of the guides and have been updated with an emphasis on clarity and their color. "We're thrilled with them," Dee notes.
In each guide, the first 40-50 pages is brand new. "We wanted to give the reader something really special to help them get excited about their trip," Dee explains. "We wanted them to recognize themselves in the first pages of the guide and allow themselves to really start dreaming about what they want to do on their trip."
The structure of key information has been improved as well. "We still take you through the destination area by area, but now the must-see sights are pulled to the front of each area so you can immediately see what's not to miss," Dee says. Also, information about hotels, restaurants and bars have been moved to relevant sections rather than being listed at the back of the book.
Layout and design has been improved so that every spread "delivers on every level," Dee says. "The design is inviting yet sophisticated and the layout gives the reader all the navigational tools they need to find the information they want."
The maps have all been updated throughout the guides "to ensure they are bigger where necessary and perfectly suited to the role they are filling at that point in the guide," Dee notes. "Our in-house cartographers are masters of their craft and this shows in every beautiful map in the books." (For more on DK Eyewitness mapmaking, see the q&a below with the mapmaking team.)