An illustrated travel journal

The
Humboldt
Syndrome

Curated by Jorge

An incurable curiosity about the world.

A collection of places, people and small discoveries — drawn slowly, remembered warmly, and kept alive on the page.

Illustrated journeys & travel companionship Travel with an illustrator ↗

Wander the journals The story behind the syndrome

Notes from somewhere, for anyone who looks closely.

Original illustrated journal page with flowers and a bee, titled A Summer Morning with Anemones
Plate № 01A summer morning with anemones

The illustrated journey

Travel with an illustrator.

I accompany people on journeys, drawing the places we discover, the people we meet and the moments that make each journey unique.

For travel designers, cultural journeys and curious groups: original illustrations and observations that can become a personal visual story of the experience.

Discover how we can travel together
✳Observe · Wander · Draw · Remember✳

A curious condition

A name for the restless eye.

Thankfully, no cure is required.

More than two centuries ago, Alexander von Humboldt travelled across the Americas with notebooks, instruments and an extraordinary appetite for discovery. He saw the world not as a collection of isolated objects but as a living network of relationships.

The Humboldt Syndrome is a playful contemporary expression of that same curiosity: an irresistible urge to wander, observe, draw and try to understand the world — one encounter at a time.

Not a medical diagnosis. Rather, an incurable curiosity about the world. A condition worth having.

⌁   ·   ⌁

The art of being elsewhere

Every journey begins with looking.

▱I · Travel journalsA growing atlas of drawn places.↗◎II · Places & encountersThe people, tables and streets that make a journey.↗✒III · The art of seeingA slower, kinder way to look.↗

From the notebook

Pages worth lingering over.

Real drawings from the road. A little bit of history, a little bit of humanity, and the pleasure of noticing what almost passed unseen.

An atlas still growing ↘

Each page holds a place, a conversation, a question — and the promise of another road.

Illustrated journal page A Little World in a Cup about tea and trade in BremenField note 05 · Bremen

Places & encounters

A little world in a cup.

Sometimes the history of the world fits on a table.

In Bremen, a cup of tea becomes a small atlas of things arriving from distant shores. Commerce is more than the movement of goods: it is a history of encounters, of curiosity, of people learning to live with one another's differences.

Somewhere between the porcelain and the steam, a whole geography appears.

Never underestimate a teacup.

The Art of Seeing

Go slowly.
Look again.

Drawing is not only a way of recording what we see. It is a way of paying attention. The longer we observe a person, a street corner or a landscape, the more they begin to reveal.

The Art of Seeing brings this practice into journeys and shared experiences: looking closely, making marks, asking questions and discovering the ordinary wonders that a hurried traveller might miss.

01 Notice02 Draw03 Connect
Travel together
Watercolour and illustrated field notes from Monte Santo in BahiaThe world reveals itself to the curious.

The person with the notebook

Curated by Jorge.

A travelling illustrator and visual storyteller drawn to places, conversations and the small details that make a journey memorable.

These pages bring together sketches, encounters and observations collected along the way — from European railway stations and old trading cities to the bright, dry landscapes of northeastern Brazil.

The notebook is both an invitation and an excuse: a reason to stop, look, ask and discover more.

Watercolour landscape of the Caatinga in Bahia, northeastern BrazilThere is always something to see.

For travel designers & curious companions

Your journey, illustrated.

I join small groups, cultural journeys and thoughtfully designed travels as an accompanying illustrator. While everyone explores, I observe and draw: the landscape, local encounters, shared meals, unexpected moments and the atmosphere of a place.

These original drawings tell the story of the journey as it unfolds. Together, they can become a distinctive illustrated travel journal or keepsake for the people who shared the experience.

For travel designers and organisers who want to offer something personal, memorable and different.

Enquiries & collaborations

Planning a journey together? I would love to hear from you.

Emailjorge@thehumboldtsyndrome.eu Instagram@the_humboldt_syndrome