Until this morning, I long had forgotten how watching football — particularly Italian football, or calcio, to be precise — has provided me with a profound source of visual inspiration for my art.
It’s not the game, itself, mind you. It’s the stuff going around the game: the uniforms — the sponsorships on the uniforms — the corporate advertising on the flashy, pitch-enveloping electronic billboards, which at once adorn and distract from the game.
Juve’s Felipe Melo advances past players from Fiorentina, his former club.
The fabulous crest that Fiorentina sported in the 1980s.
This is where I find logos of corporations I’ve never heard of — corporations whose role in the industrial ecosystem are a complete mystery to me. I like this; I can appreciate these logos for their graphical properties, without understanding the purpose or cultural baggage behind them. I don’t know what they mean. They are like alien symbols to me.
This morning, Juventus hosted Fiorentina. The frenetic, scrappy match, in which both sides counteracted their opponent’s nearly every move, resulted in a 1-1 draw. But I came away with some great ideas for color combinations, shapes and stripes, all gleaned from momentary glimpses.
I think I should watch football more often!
Thanks for reading —
Grant Wiggins
