31 Dec 2025
A field trip is usually for kids. You leave the classroom, wander somewhere new, and see things you won’t find in a book. We borrowed the idea for ourselves. Field Trips are our way of learning things you can’t learn from a screen, by being there, walking the streets, listening, watching, and sometimes just standing still long enough to notice what others might miss. A way to stay curious and remain a student of the world for as long as we can. As Isaac Asimov said, “Education isn’t something you can finish.”
This year we tried a new schedule. Three months of work, one month of travelling. The more you travel, the more you realise there is only so much holiday you actually need. Travel becomes a tool for learning and thinking. It shows you how the world works, how people live, and how places move, usually in ways that make no sense until you’re standing there wondering how everyone else seems fine with it. We wander, take notes, talk to strangers, sample food that might be questionable, and connect the dots. Half the time we’re just watching everyday people doing ordinary things and asking ourselves how they get away with it. Trips usually start with a bit of desk research, just the basics. No checklist, no plan, almost nothing. The idea is simple. Go with no expectations, no clue what’s there, and see what you find, which, for me, feels like the only good reason to leave home at all.
_I’ve been writing field notes since 2020. They started as a way to capture observations from projects or happenings and slowly became a place to organise the thoughts we’re thinking about. Field Trips builds on that approach, a new series of notes about the people and places we meet along the way. They are wandering observations of a place, and the best bits often happen in the in-between, when you’re not rushing between places, when you take the time to connect with people, and when you ask what you can learn from and about the world. And maybe, just maybe, you discover something about your place in it too. Or at least what to avoid next time.
A question that has always sat in my mind is what Anonymous is and what the world really needs. We started as a graphic design studio, then made a magazine, books, exhibitions, and film festivals, before moving into branding and marketing. Now, twenty-one years later, I see our work less as visual communications and more as sense-making. Expressing ideas visually has always mattered, but in this era of constant change, all the content in the world is just noise without context. You can scroll, click, watch, read, but without understanding how it fits together, it’s just gobbledegook. Context turns information into something useful. Something we can act on. Sense-making is how we help ourselves and others see patterns, relationships, and meaning, without losing your mind in the process.
_Years ago I worked on a research project for Uniqlo to learn why people travel. To see the world, learn from another culture, experience something unfamiliar, live differently, or maybe just run from themselves. Answers vary, depending on who you ask. These Field Trips are a reflection on that question. Part travelogue, part research project, part excuse to eat things with names you can’t even pronounce, they bring together observations, conversations, and stories from the road.
The past year was about relearning East Asia. I spent time in cities and islands, walking streets, listening, noticing how people live. Sometimes insight came from a single conversation. Other times, a few moments connected in unexpected ways. As the new year begins, the road ahead is still unknown. No plans to slow down, no mountains to retire to yet. More places to visit, more people to meet, more things to make sense of. That is enough for now, and I’m curious to see where it leads, probably wandering streets, asking too many questions, and occasionally stumbling onto something useful.
Travel is a way to learn from and about the world. Field Trips is a new series of notes about the people and places we meet along the way.
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Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous