Roses at the ready, our round-up of the best Valentine’s Day ideas from the creative world

Date
12 February 2016

With Valentine’s Day almost upon us we’ve taken a break from making space for the swarms of cards we’re pretty sure we’re going to receive to round up the best of the creative world’s romantic ideas.

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Smack: Ted Baker

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Smack: Ted Baker

Smack campaign for Ted Baker

No stranger to exploiting Valentine’s Day’s seductive marketing appeal, fashion brand Ted Baker has hooked up with creative agency Smack to present a psychedelic microsite that invites you to Hook your SoleMate. Bursting with vibrant graphics and bespoke illustrations, the responsive site is being rolled out as part of Ted Baker’s nationwide v-day campaign that will see the brand’s shop windows adorned with the pun-fuelled tagline.

www.smackagency.com

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Mike Ahern: Worm

Worm

Looking to capture the hearts of even the most unwilling Valentine’s Day participants, new flower delivery business Worm has teamed up with D.A.D.D.Y. creative Mike Ahern to promote its alternative approach everyone’s favourite Hallmark holiday.

Offering Worm’s customers three varying degrees of romance, from “I love you forever” to “these dead flowers smell like piss”, Mike’s poster designs combine no-frills sans serif type with photographs of real flowers taken by Worm’s founders Katie Smyth and Terri Chandler in their Stoke Newington “flower dungeon”.

The first flower delivery service to combine bespoke blooms and beautifully designed books, the ladies behind Worm say that they, “love the idea with working with small independent publishers,” and are looking to “do more projects with illustrators and designers.”

www.wormlondon.com

MicroChippy

If the one you love happens to have four legs and a bark Dogs Trust’s pop-up diner is the perfect location for your Valentine’s day date. Having partnered with Sandia Chang, co-owner of hotdog and champagne bar Bubbledogs, DogsTrust is launching MicroChippy, the first restaurant purpose built for dogs and their owners to share a canine and human friendly menu.

Conceived as a promotional campaign for new government legislation that states all dog owner’s must have their pets microchipped or face a £500 fine, the MicroChippy logo has been designed by agency Blue Rubicon and utilises Dogs Trust’s distinctive yellow branding.

Launching on Valentine’s weekend, the visual for the Clerkenwell pop-up has been produced by Three Blind Mice with the diner’s interior being styled by creative production agency Wholehearted.

www.dogstrust.org.uk

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Wong Kar-wai: 2046

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Jack Smith: Normal Love

Barbican cinema programme

Not in the mood? Cultural epicentre The Barbican is inviting cinema-goers to to spend Valentine’s weekend wallowing in the less mawkish aspects of love and romance with a series of repertory films.

The Barbican cinema’s weekend of antidotal viewing serves up the opportunity to explore a wide range of themes and styles pushing the boundaries of sex and romance. First up is director Wong Kar-wai’s 2046, a melancholic tale of loss and regret showcasing the anti-romance of a Hong Kong journalist wrestling with the memory of missed opportunity. Up next with a cast that includes iconic drag queen Mario Montez and Andy Warhol, Normal Love, an unfinished picture by Jack Smith, is considered an integral feature in the history of queer cinema and opened up the subjects of gender and sex to an early 1960s audience.

Valentine’s film lovers can also indulge in the 1975 Nouvelle Vague masterpiece The Mother and the Whore by Jean Eustache and a rare 35mm presentation of Joseph Cates’ cult crime mystery Who Killed Teddy bear.

www.barbican.org.uk

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Keith Haring: Untitled (Heart) © King & McGaw

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Andy Warhol: I love you so © King & McGaw

King & McGaw

If you’re feeling a little more traditionally romantic this year, what ticks all the Valentine’s boxes better than the gift of art? Featuring prolific works by artists such as Gustav Klimt, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, King & McGaw’s diverse range of prints allows you to voice your affections without saying a word, something we could probably all benefit from at this time of year.

From the the tender clutch of Klimt’s The Kiss to the very literal expression and colouring of Christopher Corr’s Valentine’s Day, maybe art can send the message you don’t want to squeeze into a card.

www.kingandmcgaw.com

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Mr Chris Martin: Kisses

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Mr Chris Martin: Kisses

Alex Nicholson & Mr Chris Martin

For those of us channelling a fear of human contact this February, London based director Alex Nicholson has produced a series of psychedelic films exploring the potentially nightmarish aspects of kissing. Kisses is accompanied by a collection of smooch-centric illustrations from artist Mr Chris Martin.

Alex perfectly embodies your worst Valentine’s fears with surreal animations depicting spontaneously regurgitated garlic and your dream date’s head morphing into a peck-heavy cockerel. Meanwhile, Mr Chris Martin’s complementary poster designs see the themes of each short film interpreted as distinctly unromantic typography and illustrations.

www.alexwnicholson.com

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Dorothy: Love Notes

Love Notes

Musicians tell it best when it comes to love, lust and the inevitable heartbreak that follows, but maybe that mixtape you made won’t cut it for a fourth year in a row. The team at Dorothy has decided that perhaps it’s best we bottle our emotions this year with their latest project, Love notes.

Pandering to the needs of those who can’t quite find the right words of their own, Dorothy has bottled the poignant lyrics of iconic love songs by musicians such as The Beach Boys, Joy Division, Arctic Monkeys and The Smiths. With each heartfelt word contained in a delicately corked glass vessel, you can send a message of angst or admiration to the one you adore.

www.wearedorothy.com

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Milly Burroughs

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