Heartwarming stories.

Just like a bird, immigrants leave their environment in order to fly to a quieter accommodation in order to finally rest at ease. Filled with optimism and dreams, many abandon their homeland in order to rebuild their lives on the other side of the world. Through his memories, the immigrant revisits his homeland with joy and emotion. The Winter Firsts booklet is an incursion into this deeply human journey with its share of heartfelt stories. The initial goal was to collect and share a dozen short and diversified stories.

Challenges

It became laborious to collect all the information, reach out to the people, especially considering some people might necessarily want to have their personal story printed and shared. I also wanted to visually represent each country, which was tricky because there are many different landscapes in a country. Also, these landscapes were similar and I wanted to show a diversity in the work. Another challenge is that, as each story was rich with experience, it was very difficult to shorten it into two or three sentences as I originally wanted to.

Outcomes

Rather than collecting a dozen stories, I focused on a fewer number. This was an interesting outcome as it enabled a deeper understanding of each story. The final product was smaller than I intended, which gave a more delicate and human dimension to the piece. Even though I had fewer stories, I do feel like I achieved a good diversity in the stories shared. The range of emotions also ranged from fear, to glee, to peace.

The book's container is made of book board, fabric, and book tape, while the book itself is printed on light card stock. The entire project is printed in black and white to emphasize the content of the stories. The meeting with these various individuals of varying ages and coming from different countries and realities is expressed with simple quotes and illustrations. The booklet was also part of the Booked exhibit in the Concordia University Library.