OBJECTIVE

At a time when information of all kinds is permanently available everywhere, an essential value is increasingly being lost: space for emotion. An idea is no longer conceived, developed or imagined to completion; it is only “researched”. The objective of vagabond books is to oppose this tendency and invite readers to delight in high-quality books, inspiring observers’ imaginations, giving wing to fantasy and providing emotional and lasting impressions.

Background

Fascinated with travel, spurred by curiosity and with his camera in hand, Bernd Rücker, founder of the publishing house, decided to explore the cities and metropolises of Europe and the world. When he returned from his wanderings, the designer set about finding illustrated books that reflected his impressions. The works available on the market, however, failed to satisfy his needs in terms of moving photographs, emotional texts and high-quality design at an affordable price. In the spring of 2011, with that end in mind, he founded vagabond books. This same year, the publishing house will debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair with the CITY IMPRESSIONS collection.

CITY IMPRESSIONS: NEW DEFINITION OF THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK

“Impressions” is the basic concept of the CITY IMPRESSIONS collection: a persistent and lasting impression that inspires the soul and stimulates the observer’s mind.

The objective of the publishing house is therefore neither to offer knowledge nor document historical backgrounds with facts and numbers but stimulate the observer’s imagination through moving photographs and subtle narrations, allowing the reader to become immersed in the city being depicted and enter into a dialogue with it. Something very much in line with Heinrich von Kleist’s statement that, “Like the appetite at meal time, ideas emerge in conversation.”  

Through the arrangement of scenes and perspectives and the careful renunciation of unnecessary details in shadow areas, the photographs and combination of motifs in the CITY IMPRESSIONS collection achieve a an open space that excites the capacity for imagination and stimulates the observer’s creativity.
The subtle stories that accompany the photographs narrate the subjective impressions of the protagonists, offering a perspective of the city from the point of view of a third person.     

Taking into account the diversity and disparity of the cities themselves, the CITY IMPRESSIONS collection successfully unifies them under a single concept:  
The narratives that accompany the photographs always feature travellers whose lives are changed forever during their stay in the city.

Purpose of the CITY IMPRESSIONS collection:

If information serves reason, then the inverse conclusion is that relinquishing information allows for the development of the emotions. With the emergence of emotions, the reader has the opportunity, via his or her own interpretation, to nurture the sensation of having visited the city herself.

PUBLISHING HOUSE

vagabond books is an independent, owner-managed publishing house specializing in high-quality travel books.