This months award goes to our Ste who has managed to get to 1st in the world (out of  2,640,158 million people) in the fantasy football league!

POSSIBLE END LINES:
Well done Ste!
And yes before anyone asks Ste is single.
A full investigation into his time sheets is now under way.

Feel free to keep adding your own…

The results aren’t quite as horrific as I anticipated, but they still don’t make a lot of sense. Apparently more people are plotting their family trees than sleeping.

I suppose it’s just as well we took inspiration from footballers and their tattoos and not Chris Myers meditating in a camper van. Although, now that I think about it, that probably would have been something very special indeed.

So, outside of the 90 minutes you spend with football, what does your 1350 minutes look like?

First up is designer Alan Wardle, who joins us after ten years working in publishing, most recently at Computer Arts Projects magazine in Bath. His specialist skills include being from Newcastle, running the t-shirt empire AnyForty, and spitting fierce rhymes.

Alan dislikes Chris Moyles, but has come to terms with the fact that he kind of looks like him.

Account director Stephanie Rushton spent 16 years in London and Paris before returning home to Manchester. She’s a dab hand at understanding complex Chinese architectural plans, speaking French, and sounding like she’s not actually from Manchester.

Stephanie bears a close resemblance to Uruguayan striker and heartthrob Diego Forlan.

Excellent additions to our lookey-likey gallery. Alan gets an 8/10 for really getting into character, and Steph 9/10 for holding an awkward pose and going with an unflattering doppelganger. Good job, new people.

We usually make a hideously offensive pornographic card to celebrate these occasions, but since we’re a tiny bit worried about getting fired, we thought we’d ask you, readers, to get in trouble instead.

So it’s with great pleasure that we announce the first annual Chris Conlan Caption Competition!

Chris scores a 0 on Strictly Come Dine With Me

Captions in the comments please. Best caption wins a pink feather boa.

Are you an experienced designer of top (shelf) digital stuff?

Do you pump out web/digital design like there’s no tomorrow?

Do you get all hot and bothered over ideas getting it on with concepts?

Do you want to push hard into the digital design envelope till it begs for more?

Can you hold your own with the big boys?

Good, good. Well, we’ve got a senior digital design position that needs a good filling. Send your CV, website or whatever to hello (at) lovecreative (dot) com.

*sorry. don’t know what came over me.

The 12^th of April 2010 marks the end of a 6 months labour of LOVE with the launch of ‘Korpi & Gordon X10’, the book we have created for contemporary Scandinavian textile designers Korpi & Gordon.

The book celebrates 10 years of Adam Gordon and Maria Korpi’s textiles showcased in context of an eclectic palette of their inspirations including favourite foods, aromas, music, places, designs, words etc.

The project came about as result of a long-term friendship between LOVE copywriter Dave Bevan and Adam Gordon and his wife and creative partner Maria Korpi.

The book was designed and photographed by LOVE designer Emma Morton, following her and Dave’s whirlwind study visit to Stockholm and the Ålandic Archipelago in the autumn of 2009.

The Korpi & Gordon x10 launch party, will take place at the renowned Scandinavian design store Malmstenbutiken and expects around 250 guests including design press and other important folks from the Scandinavian design community.

The Malmsten store is home to many classic designs by ‘Carl Malmsten’ the father of the Scandinavian Arts and Crafts movement. 

With this in mind we felt it only right to leave a fittingly ‘crafty’ LOVE business card at the launch event, this like almost every page of the book is, as we speak, being lovingly and single-handedly-crafted, by Em.

There are strange fancy boxes in the office kitchen. Spotted them next to biscuit crumbs left over from 1998. Brew-rounds are being infiltrated with foreign goody-goody hippy teas and decaffeinated substitutes. There is no substitute for tea! Is this the beginning of the end? Are we loosing the need for caffeine? Why does tea need to be green… with jasmine…. and picked from the right side of the tea-plant every second Monday of the month?

A quick office survey later and a big sigh of relief shows that we have an average of 3.125 cups of tea per head per day.

Good.

Nice.

Reassuring.

….

So why are there colourful boxes in the cupboard? Shiny silver foils open and pessimistically more than half empty?

Another hit of number crunching shows that:
Coffee is our second favourite tipple. Acceptable.

Peppermint Tea and Decaf Tea. Third. No comment.

Horlicks, Hot Ribena, Ovaltine, Hot Chocolate and Andrew’s Liver Salts. Anomalies.

But not a threat.

An indulgence.

A treat.

An occasion.

Phew.

Yet… how far have alternative brew solutions spread? Is there a chance that we’re in a minority? That this is just the start of brew selection change?
Send your reassurances and end this internal torment.

Ste Owen has ventured into the brave new world (for him) of porridge for breakfast instead of his usual Coco Pops or Frosties.

He’s looking for some inspiration to liven up his new ‘Paw Ridge’.

A brief straw poll of the office came back with Honey as the clear winner but here are few others:

“Raisins with little bit of cinnamon”

“Hate it. Hate the texture. Hate the colour. Hate the taste. I keep trying to like it but I can’t!”

“Definitely honey…and some sunflower seeds….and chopped dates….this morning I also added fresh raspberries….God bless porridge!”

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

What next Ste? Bread with the crusts left on?

Probably another post entirely but is it wrong to eat breakfast at the office?

I think it is.

10. A sonic scrubber

9. A wall storage cycle rack

8. A laser spirit level

7. A toaster made of glass

6. A DIY book

5. A lager brewing kit

4. Some comfy shoes

3. A survival course

2. A computer game

1. A tweed jacket

Amazingly, nowhere on that list is an Account Director, which is exactly what our MD Chris Conlan would like for Christmas, to work on one of our key clients*.

Last year Chris got a lighthouse and tugboat set for his bath.

There are many types of Account Director, but the one Chris is looking for is the deluxe, upgraded version. Not the old 2.0 model. The 2.7, 3.6, or even 8.4 version. Full spec includes:

- Over 5 years’ experience in design/advertising.

- Fully compatible with TV, print, & digital.

- Experience with international clients**.

- Appreciates the importance of media neutral thinking, but doesn’t use twatty phrases like media neutral thinking.

- Knows the difference between an idea and an execution.

- Good with money.

- Good knowledge of design & designers.

- Takes 4x AA Batteries. (Not included)

All this plus all the benefits you’d expect as standard: hard working, team player, fun to be around, good with people, addiction to some basic drugs, blah blah blah. Please send interest and CVs to info@lovecreative.com with “All I want for Christmas Is You” or “Account Director Job”. Probably the latter one, actually.

NOTE: If you’re sat there (or stood there, leaning there or even lying there) reading this thinking  “That sounds just like me, but I’m more suited to a Account Manager role”, then please send us your CV too. Just adjust the subject line and cover note accordingly.

* That’s a major client, not a client who’s a locksmith.

** That’s a client for an international business, not a client who’s from Belgium.

But things are now starting to change, and this finally went up on Friday:

The piece adheres to the fourth rule of design: Small things look really good when they are made really big.

We’ll run you through rules one to three at a later date.

(That’s MD Chris and Finance Director Paul behind the glass – two men who would be very useful in an emergency. Unless it was an emergency involving dinosaurs or rabid dogs with lasers.)

But we couldn’t let Rich leave without a few drinks and a nice card.

Good luck Rich and Katherine – we hope all your travels will be good ones.

Firstly our Finance Director Mr Paul Chorlton completed the Great North Run in a more than respectable 2 hours nine minutes, raising £855 for The Together Trust. If you’d like to add to that total you can do so here. Well done Paul and sister Emma. (Paul’s sister is  called Emma. She’s not a nun, to my knowledge.)

And secondly Freelance legend Mr Matt Booth had a baby boy, Oscar. Or at least his Mrs did. Many congratulations to all. Here’s a photo of Oscar in all his 6lb 3 oz of glory.

Rumours that toweling is covering a large tattoo are yet to be confirmed. But they haven’t been denied either.

In other news, Stephen Owen watched some telly at the weekend. Well done Ste.

ME: “Stephen Owen, do you think you could take some shots of the evening for the blog?”

STE: “Yeah no problem.”

ME: “Thanks. We need to make it look like we’re really popular and groovy. Research shows us that people like groovy design agencies.”

STE: “And we are groovy.”

ME: “Yes, we are groovy, Stephen. But we need to be groovier. We want photos of groovy people, wearing groovy clothes, with groovy haircuts, drinking groovy drinks and having fun with other young, groovy people.”

STE: “I could get some groovy hats for people to wear?”

ME: “Groovy. And buy some groovy crisps while you’re at it. What crisps are all the groovy people eating these days?”

STE: “Cracked Black Pepper and Asparagus.”

ME: “Make it happen Ste.”

At this point we high-fived and went our separate ways. Sadly, at some point in the following minute, Ste forgot the conversation we’d had, and so there are no photos from Class last night.

It is also why there is a photo of Ste looking groovy instead.

Anyway, thank you Andy, Ben, Chris, Ed, Adrian, Meera, Nicola, Sarah, Nilesh and Mark for all turning up. It was extremely useful for us, and I hope you also found it beneficial in some way. The work was all excellent and we’ll be in contact as soon as I’m back from holiday, which may be never, but is more likely to be approximately 0847 on Monday 14th September.

Firstly, thank you for all the excellent work you sent in.

Secondly, thank you for your patience – we’ve been pretty busy here and it’s not always easy to find time to fit all these things in.

Thirdly, we’ve finally looked through all the portfolios (at 79 there more than a third as many as last year. If I had more time I would work out the exact percentage increase, but it’s nearly time to go home) and we’ve drawn up a shortlist of ten grads to come into LOVE for a few drinks. We did this last year, and I think people found it useful – even the nine who we didn’t pick. It just gives us a bit of time to see all your work and check you’re not a total axe murderer.

We could announce them all on here, but it doesn’t seem like the done thing. So I’ll email you all over the weekend to let you know. If I was more important and powerful I would have someone to do all this for me, but I’m not, so I don’t. but I’ll be as quick as I can.

Have a good weekend. Here’s a funny link for you. (It’s not really that bad.)

Congratulations guys – hope the surf’s good in Bali. This also gives us the perfect opportunity to show Rory’s wedding invite, which has been nominated for The Roses Design Awards.

Best Use of Jigsaw or something. Everyone knows this is the only real reason creatives get married – to do a fancy wedding invite to show off to their friends. If you’re currently engaged to a creative you should probably sit down and have a long chat together. I’m looking at you Jennifer Keating, and you Sarah Edmonston. Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying. And if you’re already married to a creative you better have got a decent wedding invite, otherwise everyone’s wasted their time.

LOVE not only leads to marriage, but also to babies. (Ironically babies lead to a distinct lack of love  for the following weeks/ months/ years.) Whilst Mr Jon Humphries doesn’t work for us, The Neighbourhood don’t have a blog, (I know, I know… they are like soooo lame.) so congratulations Jon, Lorna and Darragh on the arrival of Flynn. Happy sleepless nights.

And finally here’s a song dedicated to our ginger friend who left us for the world of freelance on Friday.

Good luck Adam, and thanks for letting me have your pen organiser, even though you wouldn’t wash it out for me before you left. I’ll take good care of it.

Well they’ve also finally updated their website, which, as you’d expect, is very good, and also filled with some great work. (I have to say this, not just because we’re good friends with lots of the people who work there, but also because I need to borrow Season 4 of The Wire off Dave . But I’d still be saying it, even if we weren’t good friend with lots of people who work there, and I’d already seen Season 4 of The Wire.)

It’s well worth taking a look at what they’ve been up to in the last year or so. Here is the direct link. My only slight grumble is their complete disregard for full stops at the end of sentences. Whilst my own grammar is sometimes a little wayward, I definitely know that full stops come at the end of sentences. What’s wrong you you? ARE YOU TOO COOL TO USE FULL STOPS? Designers, eh? Sheeeesh.

(Can I borrow Season 4 of The Wire now please Dave?)

You can read more about Umbro’s Speciali boot and Stephen’s incredible ability to do keep ups on concrete on the Umbro blog. Camera work was by Ste’s mate Ben, who can be found here.

We love it when a plan comes together.

Many Congratulations to Stu and Jo.

The lovely people at PlayStation invited us out to E3 in LA last week. It’s the global pow-wow for the movers and shakers in the gaming and entertainment industry. Here’s a shameless reminder of some of the work we’ve been doing for them.

Thank you to the uber-nice PlayStation guys for letting us play in their world and hello to all our new friends at www.studio-output.com, www.spongemarketing.com  and  www.fourplc.com whose work we are totally, like, loving. Mwah mwah. [too LA. Ed]

Whilst Head of Planning Ru spent her time wisely researching the latest trends and technology, other members of the LOVE management felt it their duty to research other areas of the gaming world world – they’re really dedicated like that.

Faces have been obscured to protect marriages and relationships.

More next week on “Ru does L.A.”

(Fortunately the conference wasn’t in Dallas…)