Hasta La Ideas

Manchester agency True North has created a set of Royal Mail stamps, illustrated by Andy Kinsman, that celebrate eleven carefully chosen heroes of the British game…

“We were commissioned by Dean Price, design manager at Royal Mail to produce a set of stamps to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Football Association,” explains creative director Ady Bibby,” and which would celebrate the heroes of the British game. As a football mad agency, this really was a dream job.

“It became clear that we couldn’t suggest players simply based on the number of honours they achieved or the amount of goals they scored,” Bibby continues. “It was about their achievement on the pitch at both club and international level and also their place in the hearts of British football fans. The final list was decided by experts at the National Football Museum.

“We then scoured the archives to find images of the players in team photograph pose. We also wanted to reflect each player at their pomp. Some of the imagery was great quality, others images weren’t as good so we needed to commission an illustrator that could help us manipulate the ages of the players, and also ensure consistency across the painting. We commissioned Andy Kinsman who worked full-time on the painting (below) for six months.”

Credits
Creative director Ady Bibby, True North
Senior designer Adrian Newell, True North
Illustrator Andy Kinsman

More info on the set of stamps can be found at royalmail.com.

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