'Next to you' is an album by Island musicians recorded at Black Bay Studio born out of the 'Remembering Together' - An art project reflecting the challenges of the pandemic, celebrating the resilience of communities and the beauty of our islands. It was commissioned by Green Space Scotland with Macaulay College as the local partner.

Each musician contributes songs based on their pandemic experience and how it shaped their world at the time.
Project lead Robbie Thomson brought me on board to help with the visual aspect of the project.
The music was part of the wider project of poetry, photography, sculpture, and visual art, which meant a wide array of visual resources for the booklet. The musicians also supplied images from that period, adding to the personal documentation of each song.
The initial design process involved sending various layout treatments to Robbie and determining which were closest to the mark.

For the final visuals, we struck a balance with gridded and off-gridded placements. Photography was book-like minimalism, but an off-kilter zine style creeped in. The images were treated with an analogue, fading memories, risograph treatment, which suited the melancholic themes of the music. This also helped uniformize the widely varying quality of the camera phone images.

Mockups by Mr. Mockup.
https://www.instagram.com/mrmockup/

Riso effect by Bracken Design https://www.instagram.com/bracken.design/

The album is now available for streaming and download.
https://linktr.ee/nexttoyouhebrides