When he set out to create his travel guides, Brandon Rudd wanted to give his a different viewpoint.
That would be the view from about 4 feet off the ground.
Rudd’s Cooper’s Pack travel guides are for children. Narrated by a small stuffed dog named Cooper, the travel guides take readers through a city, exploring it from the perspective of a kid.
“Many travel books cover things like where to stay, where to eat, what to eat. Rick (Steves), for example, does a fantastic job with that,” said Rudd, who recently moved from Seattle to Mukilteo. “And many books cover the primary spots. We wanted to add a different angle to it.”
Each book is made up of pages of pictures of famous landmarks, quirky places to visit and other sightseeing experiences for the city. Rudd superimposes Cooper and other stuffed animal friends into different vignettes over the photos with text to accompany their adventures that give facts about the sights, explain interesting aspects or dispense tips.
Since he started publishing the guides in 2010, Rudd has traveled all over the world, from Athens to Bangkok, London to Tokyo. He recently returned from a trip to the island of Maui and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Cooper tags along on all the trips.
“I’ve made many friends and opened many doors because of a stuffed animal,” Rudd said.
The books are the genesis of a problem he had on a trip to Japan. Unable to communicate with the woman behind the counter at a cafe, Rudd was rifling through his backpack and out fell a stuffed animal his girlfriend had given him to take on the trip. The stuffed animal broke the ice and was eventually “dancing” on the counter. He took some photos.
“It was instantaneous how it cracked open smiles and doors,” Rudd said. “It really opened up the ability to communicate.”
Two months later after a trip to New York City Rudd took a Sunday afternoon and wrote out the text, graphics and style for his first edition of the New York City guide. He teamed up with business partner Martin McCann to start Cooper’s Pack. Now Rudd can’t go anywhere without thinking first how a kid might see it.
“I’m looking for things that are cool, things that are close,” Rudd said of his scouting trips. “Then you start making a plan based on those observations.”
A good example of that thinking is in the Seattle guide. Among the usual places like the Space Needle and the waterfront is the Seattle Public Library, a place one normally wouldn’t think of taking a kid on vacation.
“There’s tons of tunnels and strange hallways and cool escalators that go on forever,” Rudd said. “It’s a neat place to roam around.”
Rudd, who is 44, unmarried with no kids, doesn’t find it strange he’s dispensing advice to parents.
“Because I don’t have kids I can step away and see how it works,” said Rudd, who is “Uncle Brandon” to four nieces and nephews and nine cousins under the age of 14.
As for his most important piece of advice, Rudd tells parents to be invested in the trip. He advises them to buy his travel guides far enough in advance of a trip so that the kids can look over the book, ask questions and get excited about the things they may see. He also said to bring a friend — a stuffed one that is.
Many people have and the evidence of that is on the Cooper’s Pack website, cooperspack.com. Under the “Was Here” tab, visitors can find hundreds of photos of Cooper in different places from Phuket, Thailand to Amsterdam. Even Cooper on the back of a boat on Lake Chelan is there.
“Bring a stuffed animal and a camera and have fun with it,” Rudd said.
Cooper’s Pack
Cooper’s Pack travel guides for Seattle, New York City, Alaska and London can be found at cooperspack.com or at various book stores. The Seattle book can also be found at the Space Needle, Ride the Ducks and select waterfront stores. Cooper’s Pack travel guides for Paris, Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Rome are coming soon.
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