Last year I took part in the first Pointe Blank with 26 other designers/illustrators. We each created a poster for Birmingham Royal Ballet's production, Coppélia, and those posters were subsequently displayed in one of BRB's studios at Birmingham Hippodrome, and over on the project's website.

Now the time has come for Hobson's Choice to get the Pointe Blank treatment.

So, this time the brief is to visually represent the tale of Hobson; the drunken owner of a boot shop in Salford, who refuses to allow his three daughters to marry … until the eldest offers him a choice which is, in fact, no choice at all. That's the hugely abridged version – there's more detail about the Hobson's Choice plot on Wikipedia if you're interested.

One of few stipulations in the Pointe Blank poster design brief is that there must be some sort of reference to the Victorian era, as that's when the story's set.

My initial idea was to incorporate some Victorian language in there somewhere, so I set about researching such things – meaning that part of my brain will forevermore store the fact that Victorian slang for shoes was 'crabshells' and boots were known as 'trotter cases'. They had a way with words, those Victorians.

The slang didn't make the final cut but I can confirm that the design will include an illustration of a boot – a Victorian ladies' boot to be precise – and ten zeros.

I attempted to shoe-horn (!) in the puntastic phrase "It's a story of the well-heeled and the well-oiled" too, but it wasn't quite right … so an equally groan-worthy play on words will be included instead.

All will be revealed – at the launch exhibition and online – on 20th February, along with the work of the 26 other designers/illustrators.