Staff Spotlight: Joshua Fetzer

I'm a designer and illustrator traveling the world with a hefty dose of Italian superstitions and a fake Louis Vuitton bag.

I love traveling because of the people and the experiences. One of my favorite memories was when one of my best friend's and I flew to Siem Reap and spent an amazing day drenched in sweat walking among ancient carvings.

Once the sun set I found myself in a hostel dazed from the evening but absently flashing through my phone. In short time I was with a DJ from Bangkok, that turned out to be a Brazilian model, that serendipitously was on our same flight the next morning back to Thailand.

In a whirlwind adventure, I ended up spending a weekend running around the gay district of Bangkok, dancing with drag queens, and swimming in VIP hotel pool parties high above the city streets. It was enough of a conclusion to a rad travel stint that I now always find myself searching for fellow travelers to explore new locations with.

I am definitely more organized and have fallen in love with Spain. Before Stoke, my travel and experiences were very spontaneous and highly dysfunctional (flashback to one night lost in the Hutongs in Beijing carrying thousands of US dollars taped to my chest sans being able to find a bank).

But now that I think about travel for a living I have begun to really plan and consider where I go and what I do. The biggest change for me though has been that I found a place I don't want to leave. I was always ready to move on when I was traveling but I have never felt that here.

Las Fallas. Always and forever. It was the first real Spanish festival I experienced and made me fall in love with the country. I spent a weekend meeting incredible people, walking among sculptures, eating traditional Spanish paella, and partying all night.

The festival, marked by the burning of sculptures the cities artists have worked on for a whole year, makes anyone visiting feel like a part of a community with all the locals and travelers coming together for a weekend lit by Fireworks.

Stoke is an incredible creative workplace. We never like to do the same thing twice and always believe that there is a more interesting solution to the problem.

Recently we gave ourselves the goal of making our festival campsites just as crazy and wonderful as the festivals we go to. This summer we really have tried to make that happen and it was awesome to see people's faces as they arrived at a place that was basically a wonderland, spending just as much time there as in the festivals.

I think the biggest factor is recognizing that you can always do things differently. We are all here because we love to travel and be amazed by things we never expected so if you ever feel bored it's good to recognize that it might be time to rethink some of the ideas.