about the exchanges we have with our interns
In 2018, I contacted Rhein-Main University to see if there were any students in the field of communication and design who would be interested in helping me with setting up the studio website, the identity of the Illustra Labor, the texts, the workshops and everything else.
Luckily, two highly motivated young women joined us, with exactly the creative drive I was looking for:
Julia and Sandra.
Julia primarily helped me with the writing, while Sandra also worked on texts but specialized in image editing and film. They both enjoy illustration, although I don't believe they pursued that path further.
Sandra is absolutely fascinated by oriental art and is particularly immersed in the world of Japanese drawings. Julia, on the other hand, is strongly committed to environmental protection and has developed further in this direction.
We're still in touch, and when it works out, we collaborate on projects. For example, Julia helped me compose the poem in the book *Hands*.
Left: Sandra, Pati, and Julia in 2019. Below: me, Sandra Wehrle, and our first two student interns: Soira and Oliver.
Even more students have done internships with us.
Most of them developed their own book project – from the first sketches and storyboard to image editing in Photoshop and layout design in InDesign.
Among the students was Nicke, who also helped me to design the decorations for the "Chapéu de Sol" market.
Then there were Marita, Duru, Daniela, Selia and Salma, who made beautiful little books.
By the way, for anyone who would like to see them: We will soon have copies in our small shop and at the markets we participate in!
Marika is all in the middle, me and Nick are in the left.
Here on the left is Duru in her project, Duru, Mariam and Sandra and Amadeus (our studio dog!), and on the top right is Daniela (who helped me a lot in the project with Dona Sá Kaffee and Abdahla from Jordan University).
Many young people have already visited us and made our space a real place for exchange.
An exhibition is coming up, organized by girls who regularly attend the Wiesbaden Museum's art club! I can also always rely on the support of wonderful helpers like Alicia, Aline, Marie, Annelie, Valeria, and Dara for events in the neighborhood.
The best thing about it all is that it was a wonderful experience – full of cultural and professional exchange.
In 2023, I met Mariam, a Palestinian woman studying at a university in Jordan. She found me online. Mariam loves illustration. She's incredibly talented and works with great precision. Mathematics plays a key role in her design process. Mariam also has a knack for patterns and linocuts. Together, we've created many projects, including books about the neighborhood. She designed houses as stamps—in fact, she's made many stamps, including an alphabet, plants and flowers, and one with the studio's logo.
We're a great team and we're still working together. This year we released a yearly planner, which will continue next year!
And after Mariam came Ali, who designed T-shirts with "phrases", wrote a book in which he interacts with artificial intelligence, and also helped with changes to our website.
Abdahla was a great help in redesigning the studio's visual identity.
And then there were Nada, Jaffar, Saif – and now Yazan, Ekrema, and Haifa. They all contribute great ideas for developing new products, work on the website, and provide services for some of our customers.
In 2025, my support team consisted of Haifa, Ekrema, and Yazan. Also from the University of Jordan, in a year when I wasn't able to develop much for our lab, these three students helped me prepare files for screen printing and book layouts.
