Montenegro Through Colouring Books

Each crisis brings along challenges, but it also creates new opportunities. That’s how “Montenegrin Colouring Book” was born. It is a product made by five women – Adrijana Husić, Tijana Vujošević, Ana Pajović, Nataša Đurđić Begić and Andrijana Vešović Zombijana. 

Available in bookstores since recently, colouring books “Podgorica”, “Boka Kotorska”, and “Cetinje”, along with short stories, contain illustrations with  Montenegrin motifs, through which the authors, as they said, wanted to represent Montenegro to both the youngest and those a bit older, in a different way.

Everything occurred spontaneously - during the coronavirus epidemic lockdown. 

“When we used to find countless ways to fill our children’s and our close and extended family’s day, all the while excluding phones and TV from the equation. After I decided to start my own agency (last year was an ideal time for that), my sister said it would be great to do something for the children, a sort of a colouring book because she didn’t manage to find it in the variety of offers,” said Adrijana Husić, editor-in-chief of “Montenegrin Colouring Book.”

The idea waited for December 2020, when Capital City Podgorica announced a competition for the support of creative entrepreneurship. The five women then submitted their idea about making “Montenegrin Colouring Book.”

“There are five women in this story, each unique, with individual interests, and all of us are surrounded with children in different ways – as mothers, aunts, godmothers, and that was our reason to make something, primarily educational, but in a different way. Children deserve to have available content made in Montenegro, connected with the treasure located in it and represented in an authentic, and at the same time educational way. If it can entertain the adults, we will find that an additional value of our colourful story,” said Adrijana.

The motifs of the first three colouring books are Cetinje, Boka, and Podgorica.

“Initially, we decided to make a colouring book about Podgorica, led by the competition of the Capital City. The support we got was encouragement and our project was supposed to go live in 2021. Another trait we have is impatience, in a positive sense. The great amount of love for Cetinje and Boka was a logical argument for additional colouring books, so we decided to go forward with three editions,” she added. 

The story about Podgorica is narrated by the Hoopoe, and it is followed with drawings of Gorica, Ljubović, Doclea, Sastavci; there is a story on Morača bridges, mulberry, collard greens, pomegranate, hammam - old Greek city bath at the shore of Ribnica River, Gimnasium, Njegoš’s Park… 

The Boka Bay stories are narrated by the Seagull, and they are followed with drawings with motifs from the windows of Boka, motifs of plants – mimosa, camelia, bougainvillea, Perast, Kotor, Herceg Novi… 

The title page of “Cetinje” Colouring Book is decorated with Rock Partridge, and there are drawings of Cetinje Monastery, Ivan Crnojević, Biljarda, Orlov Krš, Njeguši, Mausoleum of Njegoš, buildings that used to be foreign country embassies, King Nikola’s Palace, parks of Cetinje…

“It may seem easy to put the exciting and dynamic history of Biljarda into a couple of sentences but believe me it isn’t. Every letter is the product of research and check… We are eternally grateful to our friends who were supporting us while we were creating colouring books, they gave their contribution by sharing interesting information and stories,” said Adrijana, who also selected motifs for the colouring books. 

The entire project is actually a product of teamwork.

“Tijana, Nataša, and Ana have infinite patience for my distinctive trait that everything must be perfect and well-thought, and logically connected. That doesn’t ease Zombijana’s job to transfer the initial idea into illustrations ether,” said Adrijana. 

The authors added that their colouring books have more pages than others available on the market, and they are different because of the texts that were written with the goal of teaching children something and conjuring their imagination.

“These short stories also remind us, adults, of everything surrounding us and what a treasure is part of our cultural heritage and identity. Education in a fun way may sound like a cliché. According to those who first had the colouring books in their hands, I am sure that we managed to transfer our sincere intention that everyone should have fun and start exploring,” said Husić.

“Montenegrin Colouring Book” just appeared in bookshops, but the authors are already planning new editions. 

“We often joke that I am Mrs. Excel... but that is not far from the truth, so we already have a bunch of new colouring books stacked in rows and columns, and soon we will start working on them because this is a story that we want to bring to life and contribute to building identity and brand of Motnenegro," said Husić.

Last year, Ana Pajović, a member of the team, presented memory card games called  "Our Wonderful World," through which she showed the rich biodiversity of Montenegro. This is how she showed that you can be creative and move away from the red colour, coat of arms, and state contours that are most often used and only represent Montenegro.

“The story about Montenegro is so much more than that, which is why in the following couple of months, there will be colouring books on flora and fauna, natural beauty, and other interesting things that are part of Montenegrin folklore, tradition, and life,” said Husić.

Women support is particularly significant

On Twitter, Adrijana often shares illustrations with messages about the significance of support amongst women. That’s the case with “Montenegrin Colouring Book," women are surrounding it. 

“Women support is particularly significant because it isn’t only from the rational, it carries a certain emotion. The way all of us have grown up learned both consciously and unconsciously, as well as the lack of support we have in the traditional society - those were the first stumbling stone we face on multiple occasions. During years of working, I became aware of the importance of feminism as a movement and how important it is to empower those who didn’t have the support we had growing up and maturing professionally. That is why I use Twitter daily, to remind both myself and women around me how much we can do when we love ourselves, how much we can support ourselves, and then women surrounding us,” she pointed out.