My friends Sean and Claire are always making and doing together. They do urban exploring, they psycho-geographically map the high-weirdness and local color of their beloved Baltimore, and they're always working on some kooky project together. Where other couples might be going out for a romantic dinner at some over-priced eatery, Sean and Claire will more likely to be found playing footsie while building their rendition of a Cabinet of Wonders from the Future or working on their Baltimore Babylon (my name for it, not theirs) model train board. In celebration of Valentine's Day, I asked them to write something up about the ins and outs of being a couple that collaborates and to tell us more about their unique take on model training. -- Gareth
Make: Together By Claire and Sean Carton
Barbie and Ken. Bill and Hillary. Bob and Rita (Marley). Laurie (Anderson) and Lou (Reed). Burt and Lonnie.
If there's stuff to make, and the willingness to make it, there's a long history of couples making it happen together. And call us icky romantics, but we think there's something special about two people coming together to make something bigger and better than either individual might accomplish on their own. Not to mention: It's fun!
"Beads? Bunny ears? After several months of working on their train layout together, they just don't care, anymore."
As a couple, we've always loved collaborating. It's probably one of the things that drew us together in the first place, starting with bashing out information architectures and creative strategies at a digital agency in Baltimore, MD, ten years ago. The process of collaborating, of brainstorming, of negotiating through the tough parts, of sweating the details, and finally, celebrating the birth of something that we'd created together, has always been a center point of our relationship.
So, how do you make it work, making things together? It isn't always easy. But we've done a passable job at figuring out how to creatively collaborate without killing each other, or ending up in divorce court. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to share with you some of what we've learned about making together. Is is Valentine's Day, after all.
Rather than serving up a bunch of bland, half-baked advice, we thought we'd take you inside one of our recent projects: our postmodern (and somewhat post-apocalyptic) train set, and the inevitable fallout. Hopefully, along the way, you'll gain some insight into how we make this work, and maybe take away some inspiration for how you can undertake collaborative projects together (if you aren't already).
Closeup of "Tyler's," Claire's re-creation of a 1968 riot-era bricked-over package store/bar
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