SoccerBible Q&A | ILOVEDUST : Interviews : Soccer Bible

ILOVEDUST are the creative minds behind Nike's 'Risk Everything' World Cup campaign. To talk about the project and the studio's humble beginnings we caught up with co-founder and creative director Mark Graham.

Most of the country's top creative agencies base themselves in the capital. Predictably scattered around trendy East London, they eat at the same places for lunch and drink in the same pubs after work. Situated between the rolling English countryside and the south coast sea however are ILOVEDUST, the creative minds behind Nike's 'Risk Everything' World Cup campaign. 

Combining intricate illustations and mammoth murals, the campaign is Nike Football's biggest to date and a dream commission for ILOVEDUST's 20+ staff. To talk about the project and the studio's humble beginnings we caught up with co-founder and creative director Mark Graham.

SB: How would you characterise ILOVEDUST and the work that you do?

Mark: Well, firstly we try not to fall into any categories, it's pretty important for us to work on all kinds of creative projects. That's not said to sound like an 'artist' far from it, we just like to be as creative as possible so if that's designing an interior for a cocktail bar or working out what the next Neymar graphic should look like, then it's all good. We try to do the best work we can possibly do at all times and the variety of work keeps our blood lust going.

SB: 'ILOVEDUST' - where does the name come from? (had to ask!)

Mark: There's a lot of stories to this and the real one isn't very interesting so for the purpose of this interview I will say that we used to move dope from Columbia.



SB: How did your relationship with Nike first begin?

Mark: Our first Nike job was a real beauty actually. We worked on the packaging for the Jordan x Levi's collaboration, a crazy detailed illustration that still today is one of our favourite pieces. Our relationship with the Swoosh went on from there really. We have worked on multiple basketball projects, helped reshape Nike Running and the Fuel Band and had some great adventures working on big events for Nike Skateboarding and Lebron James.

Football came fairly late on for us in all honesty, probably for good reason to, we always wanted to do football we wanted to do it SO BAD! So when it came about we almost choked. Working with the brand design team we helped design work for Nike's football boot family, Tiempo, Mercurial , CTR360 and at that point the T90 too.

SB: When did you first start work on Nike's 'Risk Everything' World Cup campaign?

Mark: The 'Risk Everything' campaign came about nearly a year ago, we were asked to work on concepts and an attitude to help push an idea and an aesthetic that moved away from just product and athlete shots. We worked 2 straight days with no sleep in creating a ton of work. We were buzzing off the thought of working on the World Cup, it comes every 4 years so chances are few and far between.

We poured our heart and our soul into create something that people wouldn't expect but also something that was cool and accessible. We're talking the World Cup, we're taking the biggest sports brand in the world who's innovation has always excelled, we're taking Zlatan, Rooney, Ronaldo, Neymar, Iniesta! It's a dream job and we make no apology about gushing about it.

Read the full interview in Issue 01 of the SoccerBible Magazine. Order you copy here.