Tribal Rhythm S/S 2010 Toddler Girlswear Brief

I've had fun with this brief today. The palette and imagery are much more adventurous than usual for commercial toddler girlswear.

Its a complete contrast to the way I was working yesterday where I was given some images of samples the customer liked and asked to produce something along those lines. With today's project, I was given a very detailed brief with a numbered list of descriptions of designs required and lots of inspirational material for each.

I prefer working in the latter way as then the client gets precisely what they want. Working in the former way is great if you have plenty of time to get into the brief and develop an aesthetic direction, but thats extremely challenging in a short timeframe.

More directional ladies fashion placement prints

Well I finally got all 4 complete, here's the other 3. I would love to be able to really indulge in briefs like this, and lavish time and care on each design but they really have to be thrown together to an extent as I'm expected to produce 4 in one day at least.

This week is really hectic as I have projects for 3 different clients all with back to back deadlines so there's no room for overlapping. It's starting to feel like the super-busy days when I started freelancing full time back in Jan 2008 and I was doing 70-80 hours some weeks. Its not quite at that level just yet though!

Back to the tribal brief tomorrow, but for baby this time...

Directional ladies fashion prints

I'm working on ladies fashion today which makes a nice change from kids and nightwear. The brief (and I use that term loosely - when I do ladieswear, I rarely get a nice clear, specific brief) calls for etherial, ambiguous imagery with hand sketch and paint techniques. I always struggle when I'm faced with this kind of project as in essence its got to look like nothing, but its still got to be something and that's a real challenge.

I'm enjoying splashing the paints around and doing some hand rendering though, and the eagle design above it the fruits of this mornings labours. I've got to produce at least another 3 in that vein though so I'd better get on...

Paisley Park

A paisley design for the tribal brief...

Make us a brew

While enjoying catching up with some old friends and revisiting familiar haunts in Manchester, I've stumbled across what could be a fun little project. Over a slice of cake and a cup of Mr. Scruff's finest assam in... erm... Cup... I got chatting to a chap working there about the brew. I told him about my late granddad who was head Tea Taster at the Co-Op tea factory in Cheshire and how I still had his silver tea-tasting spoon and that he'd featured in a promotional video about the factory.

It turns out the Co-Op are involved in the Manchester Food & Drink Festival as are Cup, and they would be very interested to see the video and hear more about my Granddad and his work. And would I like to be involved in the festival myself and perhaps present the video? Is the bear Catholic?! What a wheeze.

And what a great inspiration for a little range of tea-inspired illustrations, just the focus I need to get my self-directed work off the ground.

Tribal girlswear butterfly print

I've been continuing with the tribal brief, completing the artwork above which will be a oversize front placement. I've been developing ways to create etherial painterly and photographic effects which are still solid colour and therefore viable for standard screen output and this butterfly is an example of this technique.

I'm off to Manchester now to visit some old friends and soak up some big-city culture (and no doubt get my Urban Outfitters fix)

Have a good weekend!

Working from home on a sunny day - tribal girlswear brief

I've been working on a great brief today for older girlswear 2010, incorporating some lovely tribal elements. There's been lots of hand-rendering involved at this stage so I've been lucky enough to sit outside and work in the garden and enjoy the gorgeous weather we've had today. The jolly pair above who started life in the sunshine will hopefully end up on a girls tee on the high street.

This has been my studio for the day:


My colleague is a bit lazy...


But the locals are friendly.

Floral repeat prints and checks or maybe plaids?

I've been working on these allover repeat prints today, and some checks (or plaids for the American English). I find designing checks really theraputic but harder than they look.


I've been inundated with work requests the last couple of days from my regular clients and I'm now booked solid for the next couple of weeks which is great. looks like my self-directed illustration is going to put on the back burner for quite some time.

Self employment and sickness...

...Don't go together all that well. This weekend I've had chronic stomach pains and as a result have had next to no sleep. Terrible timing as I was supposed to be working in-house at Next today. Its extremely rare that illness affects my capacity to work, but today there was no way I was up to going in. Its a gentle reminder that you have to take extra care of yourself when you're self-employed as no one else is going to do the work for you or hand out sick pay.

I'm feeling better this afternoon though and should be fine to get back to it tomorrow and my client at Next was extremely understanding and I'm going in next week instead now.

Apart from the bouts of sickness this weekend, we had lots up fun dressing up the hounds and eachother at my friend Charlotte's house which always seems to evoke eccentric behaviour...

Nightwear seems to be staying strong in the downturn

Even after 7 years, I still get a buzz whenever I see my designs out there in the world, like the shortie set above. I found the Camille website the other day which is where some of my nightwear ends up. The first row and a half on this page are my designs, I love the poses they've got the model doing, its like they've asked her to really feel the message on the pyjamas.

I seem to be writing a lot about sleepwear at the moment, I guess thats because I've been working on it all week and been discussing some new opportunities to work with other companies on nightwear so its at the forefront of my mind. I've also added to the the nightwear gallery on my website. It seems its one sector thats staying strong in the downturn. I've always been one to follow where the work is so for now that's fine by me. Below are a couple of designs I completed today.

Designing fashion graphics step-by-step guide

I thought I'd show how I go about putting together my fashion graphics. This is just one process of a variety I use. I usually do most of my nightwear this way.

1. I compile a basic placement layout in Illustrator. I then put this into a very light greyscale and print it out.

2. I then sketch the characters onto the basic layout print.

3. I trace over the sketch in ink (I sometimes repeat this process a few times till I'm happy they're just right).

4. The ink sketch is then scanned in as a 300dpi bitmap and converted to greyscale in Photoshop. I usually play around with the lines in photoshop until I'm happy with them. I use a wacom pen tablet for all of my digital drawing. I then turn it back into a bitmap which I think gives the best results when live tracing.

5. I copy the bitmap and paste into the Illustrator layout document. I then live trace the design and neaten up the lines again.

6. I then compile the design in Illustrator and label any applique or embellishment elements.

7. I then use the print elements to create a complimentary all-over repeat design. I like to present the designs mocked up onto garments so I create a pattern tile of the repeat and apply that to the pyjama bottoms. I could scale down the placement print and use that on a t-shirt blank, but this would make the file larger. instead, I export the illustrator placement artwork into photoshop on a transparent background, save as a .png and then place that back in illustrator.

Working in this way means I get a nice un-uniform line quality that is still controlled and smooth. I neaten up my lines at every opportunity. One of my bugbears is rogue vectors and nasty jerky lines. I work in very different ways when creating watercolour style prints or photo-realistic textural designs. I might write a step-by-step guide on those one day!

Bread & Butter work - commercial nightwear

I've been working on high-volume commercial nightwear today. Above is one of the pyjama sets I designed. While this might not be the most cutting-edge, it is enjoyable and straightforward. And essentially, I'm still getting paid to sit and draw pictures all day.

The other day I blogged about feeling saddened by the poor standard of illustration and technical skill in commercial nightwear, pictured left are two of the sets I was shown as examples of bestsellers (these are not my designs). Well I guess we just have to give the public what they want!

Britain's Got Talent brief nears completion & more work for Adams

Sometimes I'll enjoy a brief so much more than others and find it really easy to complete, and theres no obvious reason why. the Britain's Got Talent project has been one of these. Perhaps its a combination of a good client, who in turn has a good client, both really decisive and constructive. Above is a watercolour sketch design for boyswear based on the one I already did for girlswear which they loved

Hopefully this latest round of amendments and recolours is the last and the project will be signed off.

I had a lovely email from the designer at Adams with some great feedback on the recent watercolour designs I completed for her and a request for lots more work from me. Adams is another good client, with concise design briefs and clear design direction, and not too unnecessarily picky so I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks working with them.

Pick of the new prints at Urban Outfitters, Lost in London & Susie Ghahremani

My London trip was very worthwhile, dispite getting lost in the Elephant & Castle subway system and getting to the LCC too late to get in to see the Images33 exhibition. Luckily, the show is touring so I will catch it later in the year at Birmingham or Nuneaton.

I did manage to do all of the other things I'd planned though. I met with my customer who I design nightwear for. I had mixed feelings after the meeting. While I'm really upbeat about the fact they've managed to secure some new business and have plenty of work for me, I couldn't help feeling downhearted about the quality of graphics they're using as design direction.

Perhaps its a result of working at Next and enjoying real investment in beautiful design, but the placements and appliques the nightwear customers are settling for is truly dire. This level of the market is always going to be more commercial, I always accepted that this easily accessible mass-appeal design isn't going to push any design boundaries.

It struck home more than ever yesterday that the designs I'm being asked to create versions of and the ones being manufacted by my customer which have been created by my peers are saddeningly poor. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much though and the only thing I can do is try and keep my designs to a standard I'm proud of regardless of customer.

I also made it to the Dover Book Shop which exceeded all expectations. Kid in a sweet shop doesn't even come close. I'll save the details for another day...

Urban Outfitters is probably my favourite retailer. The store is like a treasure trove especially when you don't have one nearby and only get to visit on the odd occasion. It quenches my relentless thirst for constant newness and while many of their lines don't appeal to me directly as a customer, I find it all pure gold from a design-inspiration perspective. I got the images at the top of this entry of my favourite prints currently in store and had there been any Ps left in the filigree 3-d alphabet, I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself. Instead I had to settle for a hen-adorned hook rack from Top Shop to satisfy my newfound compulsion to procure obscure objet.

I also bought this set of notecards by Susie Ghahremani, my latest inspirational illustrator. Her work is so lovely. I'm dying to put pen to paper but I'm now booked up till late next week which is great from a paying-the-bills point of view but not so good for developing a self-directed body of work...

Baby and toddler graphics on phirefly.co.uk

I'm really pleased to have added content to the baby and toddler gallery of my online portfolio. This is an area I'd really love to do more of, so I'm hoping now I have this showcase of some of my best work I can feel confident to approach potential clients.

I've been speaking to an agent in the US about representation over there, I really need to develop a strong body of self-directed art before I can seriously start thinking about that, so I'm now more motivated than ever to get cracking on some personal illustrative work.

I'm just struggling to find the time at the moment, I've been working on the website all day and tomorrow I'm meeting in London with the company I design nightwear for to discuss some new projects with them. While I'm in the smoke, I'm planning to visit the Dover Book Shop for some inspirational material and also Images 33, an exhibition of British contemporary illustration at the London College of Communication which I'm hoping will be equally inspiring. If I get time I'd love to visit my favourite gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, but I'll see how I get on!

Ikea fabrics

My crafty friend Anna has found the most fabulous fabric in a most unexpected place, Ikea. It has further fuelled my desire to get working on some repeat prints for a small run of fabric from spoonflower. If only I could ever get this Britain's Got Talent brief finished....

Britain's Got Talent - The Boys

I'm back on Britains Got Talent today, this time working up some placement graphics for the boys' range. Some days it flows better than others and this has been one of those days. Its a tricky brief with limited imagery and a dodgy logo, but luckily this is via one of my favourite clients who always gives me lots of graphic inspiration and direction and we bounce off eachother well.

Emma Cook for Topshop - Feeling inspired

The diffusion Emma Cook range in Topshop has really got me fired up. Its a quirky but simple range and hits all my 'I could do that' buttons. She has used her own photos taken in her local deer park to create these cute but strangely sinister prints. This week has been really busy on the commercial work front but I'm hoping to FINALLY get into some self-directed next week... Time to take the SLR to Bradgate Park...

Watercolour designs for Adams

I'm back to the days of burning the midnight oil again. Which is no bad thing considering. This week I've been working on a real mixed bag, fistly some branding and World cup Ts for Tu Clothing, and today I've been splashing the paints around to create the watercolour print above for Adams girlswear. The rest of the week I'm back to Britain's Got Talent, the boys range this time. And there was I thinking that with the downturn I'd finally get chance to enjoy working on some self directed projects. Maybe next week...

I could do with more space

I'm not sure if its the best space for getting creative. It was always a squeeze but the lightbox has tipped the space-to-sanity ratio over the edge. Perhaps when I get my bike shed and finally give Fiona's MTB the home it deserves it might not feel quite so crammed in here.

You can see in the picture the development of a placement graphic for Britain's Got Talent. I've taken stills from the show and created a collage with some star graphics and roses, which you can see by the printer on the right. I've then traced the image in pencil, which is on the lightbox. I've also added some watercolour splashes and scanned all these in. On the screen is the coming-together of all of these elements.