The Call to Adventure

Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces is one of the most influential books on transformation design. He argues that an adventure usually begins with some sort of call. This shifts the centre of gravity away from his/her ordinary world and pulls toward adventure.

The call could be an offer, challenge, a stranger, even a blunder, or a feeling of discontentment with ordinary life. The call itself is not the journey; it is the invitation to the journey. And.., it may be declined. According to Campbell, one stage is actually the hero’s refusal of the call. If this refusal ends the calling, it keeps one ‘trapped’. I think we all recognise that one. So onward…

In terms of hospitality and events, the call comes in various guises, from an advertisement, friends who have been there, or are going, an article that was read. The feeling of longing has suddenly turned into action: I need go there. I will do it.

As designers, we can treat the call as the first step to transformation. A marketing campaign that talks about a destination’s features speaks to its audience's logic. A call that addresses the part of self that longs for transformation does not argue or persuade; it recognises and simply invites.

Gotta love “Closed for Maintenance” by the Faroe Islands campaign. The image of a painted wooden sign. With locations closed for three days for anyone but volunteers. They are accommodated, get food, and are given locally knitted hats in return for restoring trails and viewing platforms. One volunteer explained it as a chance to come as someone other than a tourist, offering something to the landscape.