Introducing Nat Hab & WWF’s 2018 Catalog of the World’s Greatest Nature Journeys

Fresh Off the Press!

I returned to beloved Vancouver, British Columbia, last month for the printing of the 2018 Catalog of World’s Greatest Nature Journeys for Natural Habitat Adventures and World Wildlife Fund. This is the 15th catalog I’ve designed for Nat Hab, and it’s the best one yet.

My life can be split into two seasons: Catalog Production and Catalog Off-Season. 2017’s Off-Season has officially begun (as the 2018 catalog is now officially printed and off the press, getting ready for mailboxes) and will last until approximately February 2018, when once again, I’ll clear out a corner of hard drive space and begin looking at potential images and new design improvements for 2019. Designing marketing for two years in the future sometimes leaves me confused about which calendar year I am living in (“It is still 2017, right?”). So, I’ll enjoy the fall and the holidays, and soon spring will be here again, and we’ll figure out a way to improve the next one…

The 2018 catalog features a completely revamped page design, and we returned to a few special two-page trip spreads, allowing for extra attention to some of of our core trips. Our trip maps received a full facelift, with beautifully hand-painted watercolor artwork and detailed travel icons. As always, we have incorporated high-quality WWF content sprinkled throughout. So much thought, time and effort goes into every aspect of the catalog: it truly is an amazing team effort: Writers. Photographers. Designers. Artists. Image databases. Destination Managers. Pressmen. Data. Lists. Pricing. Dates. Numbers. Ink. Postage. Shipping. So many talented cooks in our collective kitchen work for months to make this amazing project happen.

I say this every year, but I truly feel this is our best effort to date. I LOVE the cover image we selected this year to represent this collection of adventures within the catalog’s 136 pages. I’ve been pushing for a mountain gorilla for a while. As one of the more successful stories of conservation travel helping local people and a species, the mountain gorilla embodies the spirit of sustainable nature travel.

Once again, the catalog is printed on 100-percent post-consumer waste (PCW), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper. That means 100 percent of the material the catalog is printed on was formerly someone’s copy paper, direct mail flyer, billing statement or magazine. This catalog material is 100-percent reused, 100-percent repurposed.

For the last ten years, Nat Hab has chosen a 100-percent PCW paper for our catalog. Raising the bar on conservation is one of Natural Habitat’s Core Ideologies, so we have to keep pressing and looking for the most environmentally friendly options available—even if that means added printing costs. We feel we are using the most responsible technologies and materials available to us to produce the 2018 catalog, with the lightest associated impacts on the planet. This year, we ran on both Hemlock’s Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106 UV six-color press and a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM102 10-color press.

The company who printed our last five catalogs, award-winning Hemlock Printers Ltd., has a lengthy record of environmental responsibility and compliance with environmental regulations and best practices. Sustainability is an important consideration in all of Hemlock’s business decisions, and they continue to take many steps to address environmental issues, often exceeding regulatory standards. The printing of Natural Habitat Adventures’ 2018 catalog was 100-percent carbon-neutral and proudly bears Hemlock’s “Zero” logo on the back cover. The extra cost to print the catalog in this fashion will be invested in recognized renewable and clean energy projects.

This incredible new catalog features nearly 100 exciting adventures, arrives in a bright, full-colored envelope, and is expected to begin to arrive in travelers’ mailboxes around Labor Day 2017.

Request our catalog by mail or download a digital copy.

This post was written by Natural Habitat Adventures Creative Director Mark Hickey.

All photos © Mark Hickey and Ted Martens.