We wanted our idea to reflect the generous spirit of CALM. Something tranquil, something about strength in numbers, something about listening, and something definitively Manchester.

So from a Manchester creative agency, an iconic Manchester designer, a Manchester photographer and Manchester musicians: a peaceful scene of a place called home. 31 songbirds representing 31 contributing artists, at rest together on a telephone wire, at the dawn of a new day.

Support CALM by purchasing the album – which features exclusive tracks from Mr Scruff, Elbow and Noel Gallagher – at thirtyonesongs.com.

Photography by Tom Cockram.

Thanks to Esther, Dave, and everyone involved at The Factory Foundation and CALM.

Our new TV commercial showcasing Johnnie Walker Blue Label, True Rarity, breaks this month across Asia-Pacific.

Diageo asked us to come up with an idea that communicated Blue Label’s exquisite rarity: only 1 in 10,000 casks are hand-selected for its creation. We used a white tiger stalking the futuristic streets of Shanghai to represent the majesty, grace and rarity of the premium blended whisky.

The ad, shot on location in Shanghai and London, was directed by Zoe Cassavetes, who is well known for her work for fashion houses and luxury brands.

This campaign follows our work for Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve.

Of course it’s traditional for agencies to send their clients something a bit daft and disposable come Christmas.

But, never being ones to run with the rest of the reindeer, this year LOVE decided to buck the trend and send something timeless and meaningful instead…

So it gave us great pleasure to redesign and represent a limited LOVE edition of Frank Capra’s masterpiece – complete with an assembly of fascinating notes & queries and a highly collectible poster.

Photographed by Tom van Schelven.

Since Neo is the official ball of the FA Cup we wanted to allude to the variety of things that make the FA Cup so great, from giant killings to big upsets and bad word inducing half-clearances.

The Neo ball flies straight and true, as shown in this amazing product demo starring Martin Keown’s head:

We took inspiration from Nike’s new LunarGlide+3 range and the moon – which symbolises togetherness in Chinese culture – to create Lunar Run, an event that brought young people together through running, music, and staying up way past your bedtime.

Still not thought of that killer gift for that special gamer in your life? Why not have a spin on the PlayStation Unwrapped and see if your luck’s in. We helped PlayStation launch this festive gift giveaway at the start of December and there’s still loads of days and loads of gifts to be unwrapped. No spin, no win.

Head over to the BBC’s site to donate.

We helped design some of the elements of the challenge, including posters and event collateral. But, of course, Matt did all the real work. Here are some of our favourite moments from his adventure:

In collaboration with Nike China’s design team, we’ve created a special edition shoebox to celebrate Nike’s new global range for Liu Xiang, the LX collection. The range was launched late last month in Shanghai, Liu’s hometown.

Liu is the first Chinese athlete to achieve the “triple crown”: world record holder, world champion, and Olympic gold medalist. And now he’s also the first track and field athlete to have an exclusive global Nike sportswear range.

Taking inspiration from bamboo, which represents resilience and gracefulness in Chinese culture, we designed a bamboo box that tells the story of Liu’s much anticipated return from injury. There are only 86 boxes in the world, symbolising Liu’s chase for the 110m hurdles world record of 12.86 seconds.

So, here’s a selection of overdue updates to our work section:

First up, a new video of the work we’ve recently completed for Johnnie Walker in Shanghai. While it’s hard to capture what we’ve done in the Johnnie Walker House without going there, we’re hoping this new video brings a greater depth and insight to the work.

Branding work we’ve done for Syco on One Direction. We’ve had some great fun developing the boys brand identity and are very happy with the results.

And for Umbro, IFT and the latest installment in their 1350 product range, 1350 footwear.

From 9am today the boffins at Manchester University will be taking an experimental thermometer to your mood’s ass.
To make this a less painful and more fun process, we helped them out with this lovely website*.

As the BBC put it this morning, “it’s an online experiment aimed at measuring the mood of people in Manchester…”

Offline, there’s some more hands on way to mark your mood in Albert Square today. Plus, the results will be beautifully interpreted at a concert at MediaCity:UK on Friday 9 December.

* Not only is it a lovely website, it’s also what they call in the biz “responsive”, meaning the content and layout will respond according to the device you’re using. Now that makes us very happy.

With the new football season fast approaching we thought we’d reveal new work that we have done for Umbro. Last year we brought football into the world of tailoring, this year we have brought tailoring into the changing room.

We also wanted to dial up the ‘Team’ in Teamwear. We did this by displaying the kits as a whole ‘Team’ in various formations.

PEPE, Real Madrid

Connor Wickham, Sunderland

Jack Butland: Birmingham

Thanks to Stanley, Tom van Schelven, Tommy, Jack, Kate, Nick & the Umbro team for all their hard work.

And a behind-the-scenes video by Ben Rose:

We are glad to say that all of these things served a purpose (well, the chicken not so much), as part of our latest project: Johnnie Walker House, which launched last month in Shanghai.

We concepted and designed Johnnie Walker House in partnership with Singapore based agency Asylum, who developed the interior fit.

The House is probably best described as a brand experience space. As an embassy for whisky, it exists to grow and nurture a whisky culture amongst the Chinese elite.

Whisky knowledge is a rare commodity in China, and is rooted more in sensory experience than in learned facts. The whisky drinker discovers complex layers and nuances over time, and so Johnnie Walker House mirrors this organic journey of discovery for its guests. Provenance, the blender’s art, and the vibrant Johnnie Walker story are woven into the very fabric of the space, creating a rich, immersive experience.

From the peat and barley walls to the precise 24° angle and colouring of the oak flooring, each detail reflects some element of the whisky story.

The experience is amplified by innovative installations, such as the the whisky constellation, which uses sculptural form to convey complex flavour information, the art of distillation model, and the interactive blending table.

Dr Jim Beveridge, Master Blender for Johnnie Walker, also created an exclusive and bespoke whisky for the House, The 1910 Edition, celebrating Johnnie Walker whisky’s epic journey from Scotland to China over a hundred years ago.

As featured on the Creative Review blog, the House also features willow pattern porcelain whisky bottles, beautifully illustrated by Chris Martin of TOY, telling that same story.

Johnnie Walker House is not a museum or exhibition, so exploration is encouraged, sparing guests the traditional tour and instead engaging them in a whisky conversation. By invitation only, the House also hosts lectures, masterclasses and dinners.

Johnnie Walker House has been a huge project for us and although we had to endure a lot of jet lag and weird dinners on the other side of the world, we couldn’t be happier with the finished product. Big shout-out to everyone involved.

There are more images to see on the work bit of our website. Enjoy.

With the ‘keep calm’ vibe of the identity in mind, we designed a toolkit and wrote a new strap-line that captures the essence of what Hotels London does best; offering specialist and friendly advice and ideas on finding the right hotel for you in the capital.

Umbro 1350, in full cover wrap effect, in ShortList, snapped this morning on Market Street:

And V Festival spotted in today’s Sun:

Kelly looks cracking indeed. So does the illustration we did with the super talented Jared Nickerson. Check it out in more detail on the V Festival website.

Well… not quite strip… but we’ve been around and snapped everyone’s tats in the studio; we thought there’d be several showing what generally makes LOVE tick.

A few who had tattoos refused, which left our minds boggling as to their locations, but we’ve managed to get enough to create a short gallery for you. What we’d like you to do now is to match the tats to the staff member from the names on our Who’s who.

So here are the tats:

Umbro have kindly donated a Diamond Icons Jacket and T-shirt to the person who gets closest to matching the tats to the staff member.

So share your guesses in the comments below and we’ll announce the winner next week on the Thursday 24th.

In our first headline global campaign for Umbro, which launches today, we’ve created 1350, an idea for Umbro’s entire range of off-pitch sportswear apparel.

Based on the number of minutes left in the day after the 90 on the pitch, 1350 gives Umbro the opportunity to explore and collide with vibrant off-pitch cultures. Featuring Darren Bent and Juan Vargas, our first campaign for 1350 dives into the richness and heritage of tattooing.

The work consists primarily of print, online and retail with photography and videos shot by Ewen Spencer in Newcastle (Cock A Snook) and Florence (Laser Line). And a great 1350 tattoo illustration drawn by Manchester tattoo artist and ex-LOVE designer Gre Hale.

To see the campaign and watch videos of the players involved, visit umbro.com/1350

Where’s a good t-shirt explaining the intricacies of the offside rule when you need one? Try the the newly opened Umbro Tee Shop. The shop will feature a new design each Monday, some of them by us (including the informative Offside beauty above), in extremely limited numbers.