Chaos to Collaboration: Our Journey Creating a Book
This project was a collaboration with Yasmeen Soliman, a talented graphite pencil artist. We created a book called Through the Window at the World for an end-of-year group exhibition called Interlaced at Open Source Arts in Leeds. It was my first time using Adobe InDesign, which took me some time to get to grips with, but it was a lot of fun! Creating the book on a tight deadline was a bit stressful; there were plenty of late nights fueled by a sense of urgency (and perhaps too much coffee) as Yasmeen and I navigated the intricacies of designing our book, all while grappling with the occasional printing mishap—like getting the pages oriented correctly!
The idea of a book floated to the surface amidst our mildly panicked brainstorming about how to showcase our work. While the beginning felt like a beautifully chaotic whirlwind, I wouldn’t trade a second of it for the world—every little lesson learned was pure gold.
When we shared our plan with our lecturers, they raised an eyebrow, humorously cautioning us about the strains of collaboration and the potential impact on our friendship. Ah, the sweet stress of collaboration! Luckily, we worked well together and are still good friends.
Our book ended up on a coffee table right next to a cosy sofa at the exhibition, inviting curious visitors to flip through its pages. Visitors were drawn to it, flipping through the pages we’d poured our hearts into. Seeing our work celebrated in such an inviting way was incredibly rewarding.
If this experience taught me anything, it’s that collaboration can be both a challenge and a blessing, and there’s immense joy in sharing the creative journey with others.
A link to Through the Window at the World as a PDF is below:
Through the Window at the World at the Interlaced Exhibition.