Love and 55 join forces to make Honey

London-based Love Branding and 55 Design have merged to form a new group called Honey, it was announced this week.

Honey will be headed by former 20/20 colleagues Douglas James and Matt Purkiss-Webb along with Paul Deacon, who previously worked at Elmwood.

They are joined by four associate directors, including Alyson Jakes, who was previously Debenhams head of product branding, and Peter Antenen, who was formerly at management consultant Deloitte.

James says aside from this ‘top heavy’ core of staff, the group intends to work primarily with freelances – building expert teams around specific projects rather than hiring full-time design teams.

Launch clients include Harrods, Co-op and British Waterways.