Open the photos app on your phone and scroll back to your last big trip. How long did that take? If it was more than a few seconds (or minutes), you are in VERY good company.
Evan Morrison started Travel Canvas Co to get those pictures off our phones and into our hands. He is a Michigan kid, a full-time student at Hope College, and a member of the men's soccer team, and he built the company while doing all of that (!!). At 19, he took a gap year from college and moved by himself to Almuñécar, on Spain's southern coast, to play soccer. That year gets its own story in our #StudyAbroadBecause series.
The company makes artist-designed travel photobooks, posters, and prints, along with custom travel portraits and Furmentos, a collection for remembering the pets we love. And a share of every year's profits goes to charity (more on that below!).
How many times in my life have I taken a plethora of cherished photos, my favorite views and food and people from my travels, and then rarely seen them again? One of the best things about travel is expanding your worldview, and experiencing life in another place. Rarely, though, do we look back. Evan’s genius idea for Travel Canvas Co changes that. Isn’t it awesome?
Here’s our interview with Evan on how the company began, how he runs it between classes and practice, and how to choose the photos that belong in a book. I LOVED his answer about that last one!
Turning travel photos into books, in Evan’s own words
You came home from Almuñécar with a phone full of people and places you loved, and then rarely looked at them again. What took you from noticing that to actually building something, and what did the first version look like?
Some of my favorite memories as a kid are of sitting with my family's photo albums, turning the pages slowly. Every picture came with a story: who was there, what happened just before, why everyone was laughing. Looking through them, I got to know my family in a different way, as people with whole lives and adventures before I came along. Moments that happened before I could even remember them started to feel like mine too.
What I loved most was that the albums were something we shared. Someone would pull one off the shelf, and suddenly everyone was gathered around it, adding details and remembering things out loud. A photo on a page has a way of pulling people together that a photo on a screen rarely does. Those albums are still some of the most meaningful things my family owns, because they hold the moments that made us who we are.
When I came home from Almuñécar, I realized I didn't have anything like that for one of the most important years of my life. My camera roll was full of the people and places I'd come to love, and I almost never opened it. I had no iCloud storage, so all of it lived on my phone, one lost or broken phone away from being gone. Some details were already starting to fade, and those photos were the closest thing I had to holding on to them.
Travel has always been one of my biggest passions, and so has art. I've loved creating things for as long as I can remember. I wanted to build something that brought those passions together: a way to take the photos sitting in our phones and turn them into something you can hold in an easy and artistic way, flip through and share, the way my family's albums brought us together.
The question I kept coming back to was simple: how do we keep the stories behind those images close after we come home? I started Travel Canvas Co while in college to answer it. The first ever product was a Madrid travel poster inspired by my first ever trip overseas when I was 18 that I went on with my Dad.
You're a full-time student at Hope College and play on the men's soccer team. What does a normal week actually look like, and what has had to give?
Honestly, no two days are ever the same. Classes and training are the fixed points in my week, and everything else fits around them. Each week, I look at what the business needs most, whether that’s orders, designs, outreach or something new, and I prioritize from there. Any free time I get, I’m usually working.
What I have to give is mostly free time and sleep. There’s always something to work on, and I’m completely obsessed with it. I love working on Travel Canvas Co because it doesn’t feel like work. Like any business, there are always challenges, but they’re part of what makes building it so rewarding.
I wouldn’t say I have balance, and I’m completely fine with that. I don’t really believe in balance, at least not the way people usually mean it. I get to do what I love every day while building my dream life. It keeps life exciting, and I wouldn’t trade it.
When someone comes home with two thousand pictures, how do they work out which ones matter? Is there a test you'd give them?
My test is this: if the photo disappeared tomorrow, would you miss it? Most landmark shots fail that test, because you could find a better version online in seconds. The ones that pass are usually the people you were with and the ordinary moments: the street you walked every day, the café you went back to, the view from where you stayed.
A simple way to start is to go through the trip once and favorite only the photos that make you remember something that isn't in the picture: a sound, a conversation, how you felt that day. That usually leaves a few dozen, and that's a book. Plus if you can’t decide, our smart editor allows you to upload as many photos as you’d like, and it will place and sort the pages for you in less than 5 minutes.
"Designed by real artists" is the line your site leads with. Who are those artists, and what does the design actually involve on a piece?
Our designs are created with Idris, our lead designer, a young and aspiring designer I met online. We've been working together for about a year now, and it has been a real pleasure. He brings so much care and talent to every piece, and it's been exciting to watch his work grow alongside the company. We also work with other independent artists.
Our themes usually come together from a few places. Most start with a vision rooted in real moments from travel, inspired by specific places and experiences. From there, we ask our community which places and details they want to see. But the heart of it is the design itself, and how everything is put together to fit what matters most to people.
Nothing we make is generic. Each theme goes through months of thought before it ever becomes a product, and a lot of revisions along the way. We want someone to open their book and feel like it was made for their trip, because in a way, it was.
Furmentos began with the memorial book your family made for Ruby, your dog of fifteen years. Will you tell it?
Ruby was my childhood dog for 15 years. She was always so full of energy and was the most loving dog you could ask for. She was there for so much of growing up, and she was part of every chapter of our family's life.
When we lost her this past May, I decided to make a memorial book for her. Going through her photos, it wasn't the big occasions that stood out. It was the little moments: the everyday ones that showed exactly who she was. Those are what we wanted to hold on to.
Those little moments are what inspired me to keep her legacy going. I knew other families have a Ruby too, and I wanted to share that experience with people going through the same thing. That's how Furmentos, our pet-memory collection, began: as a way to help others celebrate the pets who mean so much to them.
A student is leaving for a semester abroad in January. What would you tell her to do while she's there, so that she comes back with something she'll actually look at?
Take pictures of your ordinary days, not only the famous places. Some of what I remember most from Almuñécar is the everyday routine, like the café I went to almost every morning. The everyday moments are what you end up missing, and they're the easiest to forget to photograph.
Take the time to learn about the places you're in and the people who are part of those cultures. Talk to people, ask questions, go back to the same spots until they know you. The world is so big, but we're more alike than not if you take a moment to look, appreciate others and build connections. Those connections are what you'll want to remember.
Every week or two, write a few lines about what happened, even in your notes app. Then, within a month of getting home, pick your favorites and put them somewhere you'll see them. The longer they sit on your phone, the more likely they stay there.
Tonight, scroll back to that last trip and favorite only the photos that make you remember something that isn't in the picture. You may find you already have a book.
Giving a Travel Canvas Co book this holiday season
Order by December 1 for Christmas. That is Evan's own safe date, and it matters, because photobooks are printed in Canada and posters in the US, and they ship separately.
Here is what things cost, in Evan's figures:
- Travel photobooks: $26.28 to $180, depending on size and options. Softcover is the least expensive, then hardcover, then premium layflat.
- Travel posters and prints: $26.11 to $214.96
- Custom travel portraits and line-art portraits: $39.78 to $219.06
- Furmentos custom pet portrait (step 1): $22, non-refundable, and purchased before you build the book
- Digital gift cards: $20 to $300
Wandering Educators readers get 15% off with the code WANDERING15 (one use per customer). Thank you, Evan!
Shipping is free in the US and Canada on orders of $45 or more, and the company ships to 45 countries.
Tip: For a student leaving for a semester abroad in January, a digital gift card is the clever gift. She can make the book when she comes home, with photos she has not taken yet.
Each year, Travel Canvas Co donates at least 5% of its profits to organizations working to strengthen communities and expand access to opportunity. The current partners are The Adventure Project, a nonprofit working to end extreme poverty by creating good jobs in health, hunger, climate, and clean water, and The V Foundation for Cancer Research, which has funded cancer research since 1993.
Find the books, prints, and Furmentos at travelcanvasco.com.
More from Wandering Educators on study abroad and gap years
Jessie Voigts is the founder and publisher of Wandering Educators. She has a PhD in International Education, has lived and worked in Japan and London, and traveled around the world. She is constantly looking for ways to increase intercultural understanding, and is passionate about study abroad and international education.
Photos courtesy of Travel Canvas Co.