Drawing the Game with FourFourTune: Giving Every Club its Character

What inspired you to first start creating?

Well, I am a graphic designer anyway and I have been for about fourteen years since leaving university. I’ve always doodled but never really implemented it into my professional 9-5 work. I love drawing and I’ve worked with some really talented artists who draw fantastic true to life things. I worked with someone who drew musicians, and it was like a picture really, it was amazing, whereas mine has always been separate from that, more like a doodle. I don’t want to take anything away from that because they’re two separate entities really. So, I’ve always had a bit of an interest in it but in 2023 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had to then go through quite an aggressive form of chemotherapy, so I was in hospital for around two to three months. I was literally just sat in a room, so bored, I felt so ill and tired, and that is sort of where the idea came from.

You see a lot of walking character art and its got arms and legs, and a face and I thought maybe there was a little niche I could get into. Football! It’s tribal, people’s entire weeks build up to it and there is such an affinity with the club. Every club has got a mascot and varying degrees of songs. I’m a Sheffield Wednesday fan so that was the first one I wanted to do, sort of started out trying little things, as a small illustration. I decided to combine the song and the mascot and that’s exactly where and how FourFourTune started! I went on a bit of a play on words with the standard formation; four four two and pushed on with that since then. When I started I just showed a few friends and had no expectations of it going anywhere. My cousin, a Wednesday fan, runs a pub near Bramall Lane so his mane cliental are united fans and he wanted me to create one for the pub. I shared it on Instagram, and someone asked me to do Tottenham, and then you should do this one and this one and I decided to do them all! All ninety-two clubs! It grew organically, and it is still really quite young, but it has grown, and the reception has been great! It began as a huge and positive distraction for me that may never have started without that diagnosis.

What has been your favourite piece so far?

The Wednesday one I loved, and I still love it because it’s Ozzie Owl, it’s my boyhood club. That was the patient zero for it really, so that holds a lot of sentimental value. I enjoy doing them all but the ones I really enjoy are the one I did for you (for MRKMKRZ), the Steve Bracknall one for Royal Oak and the Forward Madison one. So, for you I took the disco ball and made it into the mascot, whereas all the clubs have these mascots. When I’m creating one from nothing, it grows, and I really enjoy it because I’m thinking more, it’s a bit of problem solving as well.

Every club has its own traditions and energy how do you approach translating that identity into an illustration?

I started with Wednesday who are, for lack of better words, a mid-table/lower-end championship team with a huge fanbase who get really frustrated. There are a lot of fans who think we should be somewhere else but that’s the way football goes. But that passion, on the bigger clubs it’s quite evident to see, or at least the ones that you feel have very passionate fanbases, but trying to tap into that with the smaller clubs can be tricky. Around the world there are so many fan accounts for your top end premier league clubs because football is now this out of control, global, money-making machine. As it goes down the pyramid and the clubs get smaller you have less of those profiles to sort of look at and steer from. Again, with the songs, a lot of the smaller clubs have more traditional songs and the bigger the clubs get they become adapted mainstream songs. It can be tricky trying to get it seen for a smaller fanbase, so I try my best to tap into that. I think a lot of my custom comes from die hard fans that love it so much that they will then choose to get a piece of art for their club.

Do you think that being a Sheffield Wednesday fan influences your work?

Kind of because that was the first one I did and the first one I wanted to do so that was where the idea came from. Also, I’m a football fan, I enjoy watching all types of football from premier league down to whatever like Sunday league football even if I’m walking past somewhere and I see some football going on it will automatically pique my interest. I have always just enjoyed football, I am a Wednesday fan, so my weekends are either made or ruined by how Wednesday get on at three o’clock which isn’t a great way to be hahha. I grew up in a predominantly Sheffield United area with all my friends being huge united fans so when Wednesday were away from home I’d go with them to watch united. I wouldn’t be cheering for them but rather than be sat at home alone I’d rather watch a match. So, Wednesday is one of the main catalysts but it’s being a football fan first.  

How do you envision the evolution of Four Four Tune Illustration in the coming years?

I want it to keep growing obviously, so there’s products on the Etsy shop which at first some sales trickled through when it was only Wednesday and united on there. I took a whole day and put the rest on and nothing happened, I think I had two in May, three in June, five in July and then none in August. It didn’t matter to me, I have a friend who prints them, and I can quickly get them shipped out, so I was happy to just do it in my spare time. I have two young children as well, so it really is spare time, once they’re in bed do a bit of FourFourTune, a bit of drawing.

Then November came and I changed the SEO on the search to just included Christmas gift. November then just went, relatively speaking, off the rails! So, I’d gone from having 13 sales to finishing the year with over 100. The main goal isn’t to make money I just want people to enjoy it, but I want to spread it and have people see it. It is very strange how the algorithm works because Manchester United and Manchester city ones, two of the biggest clubs in the world, don’t get that much traction. I want to carry on with the Etsy shop, as time allows, and take it from doing the ninety-two clubs to looking elsewhere. I’ve had a lot of orders that I have sent to America which is so interesting to see pockets of fans around America such as Texas having a big Chelsea fan base. That’s quite humbling, knowing that someone is happy to pay for something you have made to be shipped across the world.

So, at the minute because it is still in its infancy I just want it to be seen!

Finally, if you could create a five-a-side team made up of footballers purely based on their vibes rather than skill, who’s making your team?

I put a lot of thought into this! Some footballers are completely boring and don’t do anything or they’re completely unhinged, so I wanted to try and find a happy medium between people who just really enjoy the game and people who are a little bit mad. This team could win a lot of five a side tournaments hahaha!

Starting with the Goalkeeper – there was a Paraguayan goalkeeper in the nineties called José Chilavert and whatever club he played for, including their national team, he was their designated free kick taker on attacking free kicks. In his career he must have played over six hundred games, but he scored fifty goals and a Hatrick in one and he is a goalkeeper. Whatever I’ve found when playing or watching football is that goalkeepers are always a little bit mad. I mean you must be to have a big bag of air fired at you all day. So, that is something that stuck with me. When I was younger I got tickets to see England versus Paraguay and I wasn’t bothered about seeing the England team I just wanted to see Chilavert but sadly he didn’t play!

Defender – Roland Nilsson, I want to get a Wednesday player in because they should be in every squad. There are talks of him being the best player that Wednesday have had, but he is always underrated. I didn’t see half of much as of him as I would have wanted to because I was really young but watching highlight reels or talking to my dad or uncle just shows how good he was. He was already playing in a really good team, but he was just a class act! It is people who exude that sort of calmness that are needed.  I want calm or chaos in my team, and I think I have a good mixture of both.

Midfielder 1 – Zinedine Zidane because he was just so cool on the ball, on the pitch but he is quite reserved of the pitch. He was a big, strong guy but it was like watching a ballet show it seemed so effortless. He was just unbelievable, and he has always been one of my favourite players. His aura on the pitch was just unrivalled, I think Alex Ferguson said, “give me 10 planks of wood and Zidane and I will win the Champions League”.

Midfielder 2 – Ronaldinho, because he sort of signifies everything I love about football. It looked like he was having fun no matter what he was doing. He was at one point the best player in the world and definitely the most skilful. He just made really good footballers look embarrassing with his skill. But also, he was always smiling and looking like he was having such a good time, and that football is what made him smile. Also, of the pitch loved the party so he was living out loud both on and off the pitch.

Upfront – Zlatan Ibrahimovich, for his mentality. I have never heard anyone talk of themselves in the third person. To have a conversation with him would probably be unbearable. Unless, I hope, it’s all just a show for the cameras. He says “when I say I am God do you believe me, or do you think I’m joking? I am god”. His mentality is that he’s got to be the best, which to a certain extent borders on parody. He is fascinating, to the extent that you maybe believe him! I want to believe it’s a persona, but I love it.

I just want to extend a massive thank you to Rob (FourFourTune)

this has genuinely been one of my favourite interviews I’ve ever conducted. From the very beginning of our magazine’s journey, Rob has been nothing but supportive and encouraging, and the three of us couldn’t be more grateful for that. I wish him the very best of luck and all the support as he continues with this amazing endeavour.