Cultured Football's Gift Guide 2024: Printed Material
Printed Material
For the past year, Cultured Football has been picking the best football articles for you to read. This week, we're continuing doing that but in a slightly different manner: every day in this first week of December we're going to provide you with a guide to gifts that we feel you (or any football lover in your life) will enjoy.
Prints by Matty723
I would have always included Matty’s work because I really like it but, given that he’s been hit by a cease and desist by the Premier League who ordered him to remove any work showing either club badges or sponsors on the eve of a busy Christmas period (because THAT’s what’s ruining football, right?) I have opted to kick off with him. Great illustrator and brilliant work.
WhoInvitedJamie
Who Invited Jamie (aka Jamie Clarkson) has done portraits of players from most clubs but I really like is the series featuring the GOATs from each country, including the lovely one of Hugo Sanchez shown above (and yes, that is the right side up).
BradyInkArt
Another incredibly talented illustrator with a wide range of footballers shown, I fell in love with this one of Neville Southall. What a goalkeeper he was! And what a print this is!
Lower Block
If there’s anyone I envy more than great illustrators it is those people who can take great photographs especially around football. Lower Block have a talent for finding some of the best ones around and have collected their work in a series of zines. Some of them are sold out so, if anything catches your interest, don’t wait for too long.
KD Designs
Kye has illustrations of most of the current stars (and is constantly producing new ones) but what I like is his selection of football stadia maps like this one of Molineux.
MatthewJIWood
I am something of a sucker for prints of football stadia and Matthew has a wide (WIDE) selection of stadia from all across the globe including this one of Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion (although the Craven Cottage one is REALLY nice and his cycling series is well worth checking out as well).
Patterns of the Game
Speaking of stadia, Patterns of the Game has a fine series of snapshots from stadia but in his case wanted to pick the Bauhaus series of football kits simply because it is so original and looks so good.
Chaos in the Box by David Squires
So, technically, this should have been included in the books gift guide but I felt that David Squires work needed a different platform. If you’ve ever come across his cartoons on the Guardian, you will know that there are few capable of capturing the idiocies of football as well as he does. This is a collection of those cartoons and a genuine delight.
No Score Draw
No Score Draw are famous for their decidedly-unPanini like football player doodles / stickers. What I’d like to point out is their Bayeux Tapestry football series that features moments like Zidane’s famous Materazzi headbutt.
Moving Unit
By and large I have avoided illustrators who focus on just one club. This is the one exception. I simply love Moving Unit’s retro inspired work, including this collection of VHS tapes that capture Liverpool’s history.
Disclosure: Cultured Football does not receive any commission of make any financial gain from the items mentioned here except for where disclosed.
Cultured Football's Gift Guide 2024: Books & Magazines
Cultured Football’s Gift Guide 2024: Memorabilia
