When Sarah Met Tara

When you run your own micro business where you are the only one doing ALL the jobs, it can be really hard to find the time to connect and work in collaboration with others unless it’s part of a specific project that means you have to.

One of the most fulfilling parts of running my business is collaborating with other sole trader creative types.  It takes some prioritisation but the rewards can be great, including increased motivation, mutual accountability and inspiration to push your own practice/business further.

One of my own collaborations is with the wonderful illustrator, Tara Tayyebi Fard.  

We met on the Good Ship Illustration picture book course.  I’d signed up thinking it was high time I dusted off the art supplies which had been neglected for a very long time.  I also had a plan to write a book proposal and thought it would be a great idea to illustrate it myself.  

I absolutely loved the course, but it resolutely confirmed to me that illustration was not the right direction for me to travel in.  Initially, I thought it was just that utter discomfort you can feel as a beginner, but it was deeper than that.  I realised that whilst I could get better, I doubted I could ever be great at it, so I’d be better off focusing my energies on areas where I reckon I’ve got a small, but more realistic chance of achieving greatness! 

The most wonderful thing the course gave me was an introduction to so many amazing illustrators’ work through the Good Ship’s community and then finding folk on Instagram.  One such illustrator who caught my attention was Tara. Her self-deprecating humour and gorgeous style immediately appealed to me. I just love what she does!

So a tentative, instagram borne collaboration started to emerge.  We arranged one of those zooms that didn’t have a specific purpose, but we both knew we wanted to chat. I then realised there was an obvious project staring us in the face… that book proposal which I had signed up to the Good Ship’s course for… perhaps Tara would like to illustrate it?

Not only did I believe bringing her into the project would definitely improve it, but also, having a collaborator would help me stick to the deadline and get the blooming thing finished!

The book, “OOMPH: A whimsical guide to kicking ass”, failed to pick up any traction with literary agents, but Tara and I’s collaboration continued. Tara took part in my Cartographer’s Compass course last year (her map was absolutely gorgeous!) and now we are exploring how illustration can (literally) illuminate my website and how coaching might be useful in her practice, so you are likely to see more glorious illustrations like these, and hopefully Tara will feel the benefit of having a challenging cheerleader in her corner.

Sarah: Tara, what is important to you about collaboration? 

Lately, I have been craving more and more human connection, which is the very thing that excites me about collaborating with others. There is something special about meeting people, hearing about their stories, and weaving those stories into a dynamic project that only has a direction rather than a fixed goal. Just the act of making something together, celebrating life and getting surprised by the lovely results. I think those things matter to me most.

Tara:  Sarah, what sort of teammate were you at school?  

I was the one with the get up and go to start new things.  “We should have a school newspaper!”  “This PE kit is degrading, we should start a petition!”  “Let’s do a 24hour fundraiser for Comic Relief!” And so on, and so on.  You could say, based on that, I was a natural leader and in some ways I was, but I wasn’t popular enough to turn these ideas into a movement.  

For example, in primary school when I campaigned to have a school newspaper, we then had a class vote on who should be the editors… Samantha and Simon won that vote, so I never got to lead my plan into reality and the paper never got past the first edition.  

Despite that, I have continued throughout life to be (mostly) undaunted by the setbacks and the rejections, which I reckon is a good attribute to being a good collaborator.