WEJETSET: The Impassioned Voyage

As the founder and publisher of wejetset, Taj Reid is committed to providing meaningful and inspiring experiences to his fellow travelers, through a carefully curated product line and travel guide. In the next year, Taj and the wejetset team plan to expand past the online realm and into their first retail location in Old City Philadelphia, as well as launching their magazine in a physical format. Behance caught up with Taj to find out, in the midst of all this jetsetting, how he manages to keep everything organized.

The concept of wejetset developed organically out of one of Reid's personal fascinations. "I've always been curious about process and how ideas are born into reality -- whether it's music, architecture, photography or design in general -- it adds an extra layer of context that helps you appreciate the end result even more.  My curiosity about process drove me to go law school, work for a think tank, follow art & design, and travel. At the end of the day, I wanted to take all the things I learned from those experiences and develop something that may encourage other people to pursue process. When I think about [this], travel has been the greatest storyteller.  It has the ability to show the end result -- a great city, a quaint coffee shop, or an elaborate museum -- while providing the context for the ideas that birthed those things."

Their operation is kept fresh by working with a variety of outside parties. "Collaboration is really important to us as an organization.  We've learned so much through the conversations and work we've done with others.  For instance, we collaborated with Staple Design on the creative direction of wejetset.  I personally learned so much from them.  Everything from sourcing to the creative process -- each conversation brought us closer to our vision and also created new opportunities."

Key to his productivity is a system he's devised for himself around a specific weekly event: 'Utility Days.' "There are so many great strategies for staying organized.  The one strategy I've found most successful revolves around making time where I'm relaxed to review and acquire the ideas, lessons, and new tasks that make up my day-to-day work.  Every week I schedule a 'Utility Day' for myself.  It usually falls on a Sunday and consists of four things that occur in the following order:

• Relax: it may be a long walk, playing the Wii with my daughter or watching soccer.

• Review: I sit and think about the last week.  I review all of my meetings, notes, tasks, and various ideas that occurred during the week.

• Acquire: after I've reviewed the last week, I try to collect all the things that need to be done in the upcoming week.  

• Organize: I try to assign 4 tasks to each day that I think will move projects forward, provide new opportunities, or introduce new learning experiences.

This helps me create realistic timelines with myself and others.  Utility days help me reflect, which provides comfort because I can anticipate where things are heading and minimize unexpected challenges."

All that Taj does circles back to one motivation: to inspire people to get out and explore the world around them. "I hope wejetset encourages people to travel, to take in the subtle things around them and to enjoy the experience of something new, which hopefully widens the appreciation for art, people and culture."