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Amble Offers a New Type of Sabbatical for Designers that Includes Freelance Work

The first program offers the chance to stay in a cozy cabin or ranch in Yosemite

By Emily Suzuki - June 20, 2018

in Design Business | Architecture

Often times during vacations and sabbaticals we feel this compulsive itch to keep working, which is why Amble's business model is so intriguing. The new program is offering designers the chance to lodge in cozy properties otherwise not available to the public, in exchange for the completion of a design project. Amble partners with nonprofits, conservancies, and small towns to provide the design briefs as well as discounted lodging in return. The program recently launched online with a pilot program happening this November in Yosemite National Park.

Image via Amble

Amble's accommodations offer a chance to skip the homemade tent and hotel for something more unique. The first program's lodging options include a private or shared cabin located in the Wawona neighborhood in the heart of the park and a 340 acre old ranch property in Mariposa, located less than one hour away from the park. The program plans to start small with the Yosemite program with future plans to expand to more locations in the US.

Image via Amble

Amble is currently seeking professionals in many areas, including more design-centric ones like visual designers, UX designers, photographers and videographers. The types of projects and the scope of the design work is on a case by case basis, so it is still unknown what exactly the work will look like.

Image via Amble

With the current pricing structure, designers pay a reduced fee for exclusive lodging (For Wawona: $1,800 for a private room in a shared cabin or $2,200 for a private cabin, which equates to about $60/night). In exchange, the selected designer agrees to provide as-yet unspecified design services during their stay.

Applications for Amble's Yosemite program are open until July 27th. If you're interested in the experience, apply here. Overall, we think Amble is on to something with this model, and as the service matures it would be nice to see opportunities where a the exchange would be a 100% barter situation, with no money being exchanged. But this is a promising start for a new service that can bring designers together with people who need them, in a beautiful setting. We'd love to see more opportunities like this arise in the future, as designing while living in the wilderness for a month sounds lovely.

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Ryan Hume

6 years ago

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I wonder what their definition of "fail to deliver" might cover....

Also IMO this definitely feels priced for corporate employers offering it as a benefit, not individuals paying out of pocket

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Christopher Scott

6 years ago

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I love innovative business models, but this sounds like a lose / lose. Amble is basically charging a referral fee for connecting a designer to a client. This is facilitated by funds coming out of a local client's project budget. This likely sets up a poor client/designer relationship which also seems highly likely to end in failure, disappointing both the local customer and the designer. The designer's incentive, it seems, is to be able to take a more luxurious vacation in exchange for working on a brief. The immediate problems that come to mind are 1) "local" hosts would have to ensure the project is actually accomplishable in a month, which most projects aren't, nor would they be a good judge of time required with the designer removed form the brief creation and scope discussion 2) many design projects can't be accomplished by a single individual 3) what happens in a quality dispute? who's responsible? 4) pretty steep vacation price still for most designers who would be attracted to work with such small clients 5) can the designer bill the client in addition to the client paying Amble? what happens when the scope inevitably creeps? 6) what autonomy does the designer have in working with stakeholders? Sounds like a frought model to me.

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Robert Wilkey

6 years ago

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Yeah or I could just line up my own freelance projects to hit while I'm on vacation, which is something I've already done multiple times. Feels good to pay off my plane tickets and AirBnB expenses with a little bit of work I tackle on the flights and during downtime in the airport and before sleeping. And I'm not beholden to some confusing middleman. I get the idea, and I like it, but I won't be one signing up for it.

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