New designs at next.co.uk

I've not blogged for a while as I've been completely swamped with work, and much of it consists of things that can't be released in the public domain yet, so I've not had much to share.

The new season collection is now online at next.co.uk, and here are some of my graphics that feature:

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.

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...