When we started making Volume3, Paige and I didn’t really have specific aims for the project. It is part of my PhD but there was no rationale for me to collaborate with an ex-student. Paige has a slightly different way of looking at things and I suspect that didn’t go down too well with her lecturers at University. I, on the other hand, value the insight that younger designers have and I wondered if Paige would benefit from a collaboration. Why should she? I didn’t know. I thought I would benefit from her vision but there was no logical reason for us to work together. Lockdown was happening and so collaboration would be interesting in that context but still the reasons were tenuous. I simply believed in Paige’s ability and she is a nice person. We split the tasks required and the results are good. At a time when I lost motivation completely, for anything – my life had seemed pretty hopeless at that point, Paige messaged me. Then she sent me her G. F. Smith paper sample book. I regained some motivation and the project continues. This is the purpose of collaboration – to rely on your collaborators to make up for your shortfalls.
Our plan now is to print each sheet on a different stock, one of which will be transparent or translucent. We still need a cover which I need to talk to Paige about. For now, Volume3 is nearly ready for printing. Stock needs to be ordered and a cover finalised. If anything, Volume3 is about collaboration. It is an idea to experiment with images and type around the theme of railway stations but now that seems to be a secondary concern. What matters is that we made something which I believe is better than it would have been had I worked on it on my own.
