“Alone / Together” is a two-part publication exploring the complexities of our interpretations and relationships with the words through the eyes of 57 anonymous participants.
The written contents of this book were collected anonymously from 57 individuals. Over three days, a Google Form was released to the public, asking participants to answer a series of questions. The form I released was meant to simply act as inspiration, but after reviewing the answers provided, I found it to contain an abundance of insightful and challenging ideas and translations, and so decided to use these responses as the focus and primary content of my publication.
I chose to hand bind the publication as I could both visually separate and join the two parts of the book while also challenging my binding abilities. I chose to dos-e-dos Coptic stitch the two parts and keep the covers plain card with a simple embossed title. The neutral appearance was intended to not accidentally sway the reader’s perception of either word before their exploration of the book's contents. The neutral covers also create a lovely contrast with the colourful imagery within.
I carefully curated the images to best compliment the responses and diversely represent each concept.
I used photographs from some of my favourite photographers to help visualise the themes and ideas presented through the responses. These images are all highly emotive and depict the many definitions and perceptions of the words “alone” and “together”.
Publication design by Mikayla Cairney, @cairneydesigns, 2021
https://www.instagram.com/cairneydesigns