Commissioned by Form & Glory, Ben O'Brien AKA 'Ben The Illustrator' has created a set of football inspired prints.
For lovers of football, stadiums are our place of worship – the atmosphere, the build up – it's the brick and mortar on which the game is played. This 5 piece collection includes The Emirates, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Anfield and The Ethiad – taking a slice of each one, the prints celebrate 5 of the biggest Premier League grounds in the country in an abstract fashion and we like 'em. A lot.
Discovering a little more about the project, we asked Ben a few of questions...
Can you tell us a little about your design style and how this project came about?
I’ve been illustrating full-time for over a decade now, and I’ve always tried to take inspiration from the world, nature, architecture, people etc, but I like to play with it, abstract it, play with graphic shapes and bold colours.
Form and Glory approached me last year to ask if I’d be able to put together some prints for them, I wasn’t limited to just football, but I started with that as a loose focus, how to create artwork that fans would feel an affinity with, but without focusing on players (simply because fellow illustrators have covered that area so well already). I’m a bit of a geek for architecture, and have always loved the part a football ground plays in the love of a team, sometimes like a second-home, sometimes like a church to worship.
Out of the 5 designs, do you have a personal favourite?
The Emirates, but I’m biased towards Arsenal on that one. Saying that, I felt a little sorry I didn’t do Highbury, maybe I still will, as a tribute. I lived either side of Highbury for quite a few years, on match days you could hear the crowd from our doorstep. Second to The Emirates though, my favourite is Anfield, not just with how the illustration turned out, but also because it’s got a long history, home to generations of fans.
Are there any more designs planned?
Definitely, I started with the (current) top five teams, and have a few more of Premiere League stadiums I’d love to do asap, but also some of the Championship grounds, if they’ve got a notable history, a strong fan-base or interesting architecture, then it’ll be going on my to-do list. I’ve even been asked to think about illustrating the 250 seater ’stadium’ in the Somerset town where I now live!
You can view more images from the collection, more of Ben's work as well as pick up a print here.
