Metaphorically that is…

There’s a nice piece in The Drum that explains a few projects we’re working on.

You can read it here.

Bouncing a Giant Beachball – The best home videos are here

First we had thousands of ping pong balls bouncing down the street in San Francisco. Then we had Scottish tower blocks exploding with paint and plasticine rabbits running around New York. Fortunately this stunt has nothing to do with Juan Cabral or Sony, the people of Dallas just did it because it seemed like a good idea. Oh, and to set a Guinness world record.

Just a quick update on Class.

Thanks to everyone who applied.

Sorry we couldn’t take you all on.

The lucky eight will be dropping by tomorrow for a chat and a few drinks.

We’ll post up about all those who come with details of how you can get in touch.

Hopefully you can help them too.

Last night was the Roses Design Awards. We did pretty well last year and although we had a few pieces nominated we genuinely didn’t feel we would beat our tally. So it was nice to be wrong.

Emma and Gre were both nominated for Emerging Designer of the Year, and, to our amazement, they both won it. Not that we had a favourite. Mr Rix’s sizeable ego was swelled even further by picking up Designer of the Year, and our digital department proved they’re a force to be reckoned with by picking up a Gold for The Neighbourhood’s website and a Bronze for Warburtons. Silver Cross won Silver for Packaging and Gold for The Little Book of Silver Cross in Promotional Literature, as did The University of the Arts Prospectuses for Corporate Literature. All good so far.

But then a funny thing happened: after seven years of waiting, we finally picked up the Grand Prix, for the Silver Cross Book. Gobsmacked. So all in all, seven Golds, a Silver and a Bronze – needless to say everyone’s feeling pretty chuffed with themselves. Or at least we did last night. Today we just feel like crap.

Well done to everyone who worked on the projects, thanks to the Drum and all the judges – Malcolm Garrett, Jane Pluer, Mark Hurst, Ben Stott and Ian McFarlane, and congrats to Music and The Neighbourhood, who also picked up awards. Finally a massive thank you to all our clients for trusting us to do the work that we love doing. All we need to work out now is how we better this next year.

If you’re out in the centre of London today, you’ll probably notice a few people waving Union Jack flags and cheering on our Olympic and Paralympic heroes. Back in August and September Britain smashed their own record books by coming forth in the medals table, only narrowly pipped to third place in the closing days by Russia.

Up to 500 stars, including Olympic gold medallists like sprinter Christine Ohuruogu, cyclist Rebecca Romero and 13-year-old double Paralympic champion swimmer Eleanor Simmonds, are expected to take part.

With a record haul of 19 Golds, and a massive total of 47 in total, it’s forced us to ask one vital question: Are the Olympics getting easier?

Let’s look at the facts: starting from the Rome Olympics in 1960, Britain’s Gold Medal count has read 2, 4, 6, 6, 3, 5, 3, 5, 1, 11, 9, and this year 19. So in the last three Olympics, we’ve won more Golds than in the previous 9. Much like our beloved GCSE and A level examinations, there was a time winning an Olympic Gold (or getting an A grade) really used to mean something special. It’s time we got that back. Nowadays it seems they’re giving them away to anyone who shows up on time.

Chris Hoy: turned up on time. Three times.

We’re proposing that for 2012 we add an extra ten meters onto all the distance events, perhaps an extra twenty metres for the long distance runs. Triathlons and Pentathlons should each be given an extra event, and all equestrian sports should be done on a pony or donkey.

We haven’t worked out any suggestions for long jump or javelin, but you have any thoughts do feel free to share them with us and we’ll send them up to Boris and Seb next week.

Eleanor Hardwick was born in 1993. These are some of her photos. I don’t think there’s anything else I can add apart from saying, yes, she really is only fifteen. More photos here.

Liked this.

Found via age.

As you might have noticed from newspapers, radio and TV, our economy hasn’t been doing so well recently. But it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom with LOVE’s new patented game “Credit Crunch – The Game!”

It’s really easy to learn, and can be played by any number of people of all ages. Simply stand around with your friends as normal working, drinking and chatting. Whenever someone mentions the words “Credit Crunch”, punch them in the face as hard as you can.

It really is great fun.

If you only go to Liverpool once this year, make sure it’s on the 23rd October. That’s when the inaugural Liverpool Design Symposium will take place at St.George’s Hall. In case you didn’t know, Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture for 2008, and to celebrate this three of its top design agencies, Uniform, Smiling Wolf and Black & Ginger, have collaborated with D&AD, DBA, Design Initiative and Merseyside ACME to set up an insightful and  inspirational programme of speakers to share their wisdom with you.

Here’s a rough breakdown of events:

1pm: D&AD Student Awards Seminar. Speakers:

Rhiannon James, D&AD Education & Professional Development Manager

Fergal Kilroy, D&AD Student Awards Manager

Richard Scholey, Creative Director, Elmwood

Suzie Webb, Freelance digital guru

2pm: DBA Business Briefing: Surviving the Credit Crunch

Adrian Rasdall, Revenue Matters

3.45pm The Emotional Type – 

Bruno Maag, Founder, Dalton Maag

5.15pm D&AD Awards 2008 Winners Showcase and Q&A

It should be a great day, with plenty to learn, and plenty of people to meet. There should be a fair few people going from here, so if there’s enough interest we might get a small bus to take us over. We’ll let you know of any spare places nearer the time. 

Does the casual arrangement of TV remote controls in the picture above leave you distressed and short of breath? Perhaps you have problems sleeping at night if someone’s put your Eric Clapton CD back in the ‘E’ section (it should blatantly be in ‘C’). Or maybe you can’t walk past picture frames without checking they’re perfectly straight?

If this kind of obsessive behaviour sounds like you then you’re in luck as we’re looking for a Senior Art Worker or Studio Manager. As the title would suggest, you’ll need to have a few more qualifications than a couple of OCDs, but a keen eye for detail and organisation wouldn’t go amiss. Here’s a quick Q&A to help clear things up:

Q: Can you use InDesign?

Q: Can you use Photoshop?

Q: Can you use Illustrator?

Q: Can you manage a studio?

Q: Can you deal with IT issues? (server setup, email, work backup, studio hardware and software upgrades and installation)

Q: Can you keep creatives in line and make sure they file their work correctly?

Q: Is your name Johnny, Jon, Jonathan, or Jon boy? (this is not essential)

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to all of the above questions, and would like to work at LOVE, email your CV, salary expectations and examples of your work to s.wood@lovecreative.com