The first home league game of any new season is guaranteed to fire up emotions, so we wanted to make sure that our first programme cover was suitably eye-catching. The game against Sunderland was also Daniel Farke’s first home league match in charge of Norwich and marked the start of a new era which is why we wanted to pay homage to the Canaries first ever International manager.

With this in mind our attention turned to Daniel Baird, a young graphic designer based in the North West who has previously been a contributor to Patterns of Play. Daniel specialises in linocut printing which is a technique originating from Germany, something we felt was appropriate given the homeland of the new City boss.

"As lino printing is something I love, I decided it would work well for this piece. Having originally sketched out an image of Daniel Farke, I then took to the lino and spent a good few hours cutting it out. The whole process is very time consuming but once you print it and see the final piece, it’s very rewarding. This particular print is quite detailed so it brings out the facial characteristics of Daniel Farke well. A lot of patience is required but I’d say it was definitely time well spent!"
 

Words by Cover Artist, Daniel Baird

To celebrate the artwork further we have released a limited edition run of prints, hand signed by the artist and available to buy now from our online shop.