PrintFC is a personal project by UK-based designer Harry Dowlen that celebrates the tactile history of football print culture. Built from vintage magazines, annuals and matchday programmes sourced from charity shops, the work transforms printed ephemera into one-off collages that honour the physical character of pre-digital printing.
At the centre of the project is a simple idea: destroy something old in order to create something new.
Dowlen begins by cutting players and fragments from vintage publications using a scalpel, preserving the movement and sharp edges of the original photographs. These pieces are then scanned at high resolution to capture the small details of the original printing process, from halftone dot patterns to subtle colour shifts and ageing paper textures.
“Older football print has a texture and personality that’s difficult to recreate today,” Dowlen explains. “Scanning at high resolution lets those details remain part of the work rather than smoothing them away.”
The collages are then digitally manipulated, warped and layered, allowing new compositions to emerge while still retaining traces of the original material. The process remains deliberately instinctive and playful.
“There’s no real right or wrong decision in the process. The excitement comes from experimenting, cutting things apart and seeing what happens.”
A key visual reference for the project is the design of 1970s FA Annuals. Many of these publications featured black-and-white photographs that were later hand-coloured, producing bold palettes and painterly surfaces that continue to influence the look and feel of PrintFC.
The project also reflects on the changing nature of football media. Before the digital era, the sport existed within a rich print ecosystem of programmes, magazines, annuals and fan-made zines. These publications carried a physical connection to the game that is increasingly absent in today’s screen-based consumption.
“Football used to live through print in a completely different way,” Dowlen says. “This project is partly about celebrating that archive and partly about exploring what happens when you physically rework it.”
Each PrintFC piece is unique, built from original printed material and shaped through a process that blends physical craft with digital experimentation.
Looking ahead, Dowlen hopes to expand the project into printed editions and collaborations while keeping football as the central reference point.
Harry Dowlen is a UK-based graphic designer whose work focuses on collage, archival imagery and the textures of vintage print. Through PrintFC, he explores the intersection of football culture, physical craft and the overlooked visual history of printed sports media.
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