The Red Door

In the winter of 2005 illustrator Laurie Hastings and writer David Troupes spent seven weeks working in the Gyle, an industrial estate just west of Edinburgh. Like many recent graduates and would-be artists they had signed on with an employment agency, and, after two days of rushed and totally inadequate training, were thrown onto the phones in a Telewest call centre. In between processing card payments and enduring verbal abuse, they struck up a friendship, swapping bits of creative work. One of these was a poem David had written about leaving the Gyle on a packed but quiet bus, called As We Make Our Way Home.

Four years later, this poem became the kernel for a collaboration between the two: six poems paired with six illustrations, half instigated by Laurie and half by David. At the centre of this work are the moods and scenes and rhythms of a city - people, and the textures that people form.

The inspiring six piece postcard set is now available at The Red Door Gallery.