Wednesday night was D&AD student workshop night.

Set up to show grads that there’s more to making it in the industry than having a devastating array of chequered shirts in their wardrobe, D&AD invited us to set a brief, and then hold a show and tell here.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of the evening, but here’s an artist’s impression.

Our request was for a post-Blumenthal campaign for Little Chef, and 18 of the best young creatives around the country came in to show us what goes on in their heads. Some were from Liverpool, some from Leeds, a few from Manchester, plus a large crew from Birmingham.

Ideas included Little Chef’s short stories, sampling in festival tents, and the Little Chef character in an uncompromising position with someone who we believe was Jeremy Beadle. The standard was up there.

And it’s anyways a bonus when we learn something from the night too. Before Wednesday we were totally clueless as to what a ‘Wee Dance’ is. Now we do.

Thanks to all the students who turned up – it really  was an impressive show of work, and nice to meet such an enthusiastic bunch.

We’re afraid we’ve got to call last orders on the junior designer position we advertised last week.

And next Friday (27^th) we’ll be making a decision.

That’s still 7 days away though – more than enough time to get your work together. A pdf with your six best pieces to hello@lovecreative.com would be perfect, thank you.

Have a good weekend.

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Thanks to Mark for the tip.

We hate goodbyes. But were it not for Emma leaving to go travelling for four months then we’d have never had the opportunity to make this oversized waxing strip as a leaving card. (Emma’s off to Brazil, you see.)

It’s made with 100% authentic human hair that one of the girls in the office collected ‘from downstairs’. We’re assuming she meant the hairdressers that’s two floors below us.

Happy travels, Emma – you’ll be missed by everyone here. But only for a couple of months and then you’ll be back again and we’ll forget that we ever really missed you in the first place.

Taking up Emma’s seat is Gemma. Gemma was top of the CLASS back in October and starts her three months with us today. She’s been freelancing since graduating from Staffordshire last year and is really rather talented. Her superpower is the ability to make everyone instantly warm to her, and her weakness is sweets.

It’s Friday. The weekend is about to begin. If you’re a junior designer, preferably with a year or two’s experience and a couple of check shirts in your wardrobe, you might want to consider this question over the next couple of days:

1)   Would you like a job at LOVE?

But don’t answer right away. There’s no rush. Maybe first take a look at some of the work we’ve done recently (click ‘Work’ button, top-right). Have a think if you can put together a good portfolio of 2D and 3D work. Work that doesn’t move and work that does move. Think about it. And while you’re thinking, look at this picture of Alma Duncan and her prize-winning onion set grown outdoor with the aid of Böd Ayre Products Seaweed Liquid Extract. Alma had what it takes – DO YOU?

If you still like the idea on Monday morning then drop us an email with a pdf of your six best bits of work on hello@lovecreative.com. Just so Helen doesn’t get confused, please put “This is for the junior designer job” in the subject box. Or words to the effect of. Have a good weekend.

A quick survey of our creative department showed us that no one really paid much attention in science. (Although Gre got an A in GCSE Physics, and Hari got 2 As in Science.) But apart from them most of us spent double science on a Thursday afternoon doodling and unsuccessfully flirting with the class hottie.

And that’s the problem: Science, Maths and Technology are often seen as the domain of geeks and nerds. It’s also the problem that The Science Council have set out to rectify (well, it’s not as if the Sport’s Council were going to do it, were they?) which is why they asked us to help them with the Future Morph website.

My Future Finder aims to encourage children of all ages to see Science, Maths and Technology as legitimate subjects to get into all sorts of careers. Fancy being part of a rock band? Start here. Thinking about becoming a fitness instructor? Click this way. Looking to set yourself on fire in front of movie cameras? You’re mad.

Notable credit should go to designers Chris Myers and Chris Gray, Mr Hari Bajwa for his excellent use of copy, and a crack team of illustrators including Andy J Miller, Andy Forshaw and a few of the boys and girls from TOY: Dee Halsall, Jiro Bevis, Scott Balmer, Jon Boam, and Jean Jullien. Thank you all.

Imagine, if you will, a pair of shoes. Or some boots. 

And imagine that these shoes or boots are really great shoes or boots.

And imagine that you wear these really great shoes or boots for many, many years, and the great shoes or boots start to get a bit tatty, and you feel sad because you might have to the get a new pair of shoes or boots that won’t be the same, but then you pull yourself together and realise that there’s no need to cry, because it’s just a pair of shoes or boots, albeit a really great pair of shoes or boots.

And imagine that just as you are about to get a new pair of shoes or boots you remember that your really great shoes or boots are Dr Martens FOR LIFE shoes or boots, and they are indeed guaranteed for life. Yes, that’s right. FOR LIFE.

Sounds too good to be true? Then take a look at the new site we’ve just completed for Dr Martens.

The technical details are this: “The FOR LIFE guarantee covers the failure of any component which has been subjected to normal wear and tear (such as upper leather, stitched seams, eyelets, soles, welt, linings and reinforcements) and not unreasonably abused.”

So that’s shoes sorted for life then. Or boots. Admittedly ‘life’ varies from one person to the next. You could step out of your shoe shop in your beautiful new DMs and get hit by a bus, car or lorry. But equally you could be still kicking in your DMs when you’re old, wrinkly, and tearing up the old people’s home. That’s the way we like to think of it.

Our learned friend Palmer has asked us to write about some more of our own work, and who are we to say no to such a request? The Neighbourhood have been with us on the third floor of Basil Chambers for a couple of years now. We’ve shared good times and bad hangovers, and they’ve helped us out on some big projects like PSP and Gola to name a few, so it seems only fair that we should help them out in whatever way we can. Here are the new client packs we’ve just designed for them.

Business cards:

Plus DVD cases:

And stationery:

All held together in one nice pack:

There are eight illustrations in total, all themed around the word ‘Neighbourhood’, and drawn by the fair* hands of Emma and Chris, and the slightly hairier hand of Gre.

Incidentally, if you would like to see more of our work, just click on the tab in the top right hand corner that says ‘Work’. If you don’t want to see any more of our work, do not click on the tab in the top right hand corner that says ‘Work’.

* The management would like to make it clear that they’re not suggesting that Chris has lady’s hands. Just that Gre is far more flocculent.

This site has been doing the rounds in our office recently. Nicely done.

Reminds us of Shhh.tv, but without the alcoholic Santa and shark heads.