"The Trauma of Redundancy" for The Guardian

Tsk, tsk Ms. Calder. What kind of blogging do you call this, when your last post was weeks ago? Must do better.
Sorry about the irregular blog posting, folks but I have been going through the "Trauma of Dodgy, Bodging Builders", so its been a tad stressful here in Studio Calder. However, our new builders are VERY good and we hope to be back in the house VERY SOON, so I can resume normal service again (and get my lovely studio back!)

In the meantime, I have been working away all summer on some lovely jobs, the most recent being for The Guardian. It was all about the stress of redundancy and how people felt a loss of identity and were isolated by the experience.
Writer Ian Wylie looked into the aftermath of losing your job, recognising that while it can be a psychological blow, there is much you can do to get back on your feet
Wylie described "keeping the wolf from the door" too - so I couldn't resist a big 'ol wolf.

This is a more surreal image for me,as compared to my usual narrative style but I like it - as did Sarah Habershon, the art director. I've included an image of the front page complete with illo too, so you can see it in context.

Finally, I hope you take the opportunity to have a look at my BRAND NEW WEBSITE designed by Evie at Eskymo. Lush.

Paternity Leave for The Guardian

The Guardian always give me juicy subject matter to illustrate and this article was no different.
Sarah Habershon, art director at the Guardian, contacted me last Tuesday to see if I could do this piece, entitled No Father Forward by Elin Darby about the issues surrounding paternity leave in the UK. Of course I could! I love an adrenalin pumping deadline me! - which was Thursday.
The article discussed how many companies seemed not to take the idea seriously of a father taking time off to help care for a new baby, or even help out with childcare if his partner were returning to work after her maternity leave. Some men were even made redundant on the point of returning to work after taking paternity leave - with plenty of other reasons being given for the redundancy other than "you seem to be unreliable and /or uncommitted because you take time off to care for your children", which of course is illegal to claim.
After some doodling about with themes of a "flexible parenting/working environment" theme, I suddenly remembered all the images of Lehmann Bros. employees who had been made redundant a few months ago, and them walking out the office with all their possessions in a lowly cardboard box. It seemed cleaner and simpler to me to make that statement visually, but replacing the box with a good old-fashioned pram.