Who is Little Branch?

Maree Oaten is 31, a mother of three and a very speedy and brilliant graphic designer. When I call her a genius, she just shrugs. Anna Johnson, 44, mother of one (me) is an author and illustrator who until recently only provided artworks for her own books. We met when working at a Sydney advertising agency and forged our creative bond designing my third book Yummy Mummy Manifesto (www.yummymummymanifesto.com). Maree came to New York, slept on my couch in Brooklyn, made a million visits to the copy shop in the west village and forged an incredible style with vivid colours and smooth contoured lines. I was heavily pregnant. We eat hamburgers in a low ceilinged diner in Williamsburg and dreamt of a card line. But, alas, not that year. Some time later Maree was living in London and she visited me again in New York. We shopped for discount Marc Jacob’s shoes and this time we began to design “Savvy Chic”, a recession memoir with a more ragged romantic style. Maree was pregnant this time. And again we were hatching more dreams. The book proposal took some time to take off and by the time I wanted to work with Maree again she was expecting twins. Some of the art we created then is now part of our new card line but more on that later.

Like star crossed lovers it was not till we returned to Sydney early this year that we could sit down, drink copious pots of tea, and find a project that released our inner visions and allowed us time for our kids: Lachlan, Noah, Jasmin and Marcello. In the late summer of 2010, I grabbed a train up to Maree’s place in Lindfield and looked through the art we had at hand. For “Savvy Chic” Maree had made some beautiful collages with my water colours and fragments of photography, wallpaper, fabric and eighteenth century toiles but we needed more and so I began to draw. Bleeding blue flowers and origami umbrellas, rainy day women and collections of old dresses, chunky gouache flowers and lonely modern bottles. Every time I’d turn up at Maree’s door I never really knew what was going to come out of my size four paintbrush.

When the drawings were finished they formed natural collections. The way Maree designs my art takes on different hands and can often look dip into different decades and moods.

Both of us argue about what men will think of our cards. We have just done a collection of mid century chairs that I think look very mannish and minimal but God know my floral tendencies find their way in. Girly. I really hate that word. But I am not ashamed of rampant blooms, or vintage dresses, or handbags or shoes or teacups. Secretly I think men rather fancy them too. Little Branch is not heading for the Laura Ashley English Country Garden ghetto anytime soon though. It was a mood we were feeling for spring, the roses and the rain. Come summer we might be feeling a bit Danish or a bit Mod. The beauty of having your own design company is that you really can do whatever you like. A welcome joy after working for many others for many, many years.