Art director Sergey Zhigarev brings the printed matchday programme back to a Russian football club, pairing a strict typographic identity with a season-long series of illustrated posters that have grown from club publication into a recognisable visual language in their own right.
The printed matchday programme has been quietly disappearing. Real-time apps, digital feeds and screens have replaced the physical object that once accompanied every game as a matter of course. For the past season, Rodina FC has reconsidered that shift, returning the programme to print and expanding its role from archival document into something closer to a hybrid of publication and illustrated poster.
The project reflects the approach of art director Sergey Zhigarev, whose focus is on reintroducing traditional print media into contemporary sporting contexts. At the beginning of the season, as the club entered a new phase of development, a visual identity was being established around a bold custom display typeface as its typographic core, deliberately strict and consistent. That foundation needed a complementary element, something capable of introducing contrast without breaking the coherence of the system. The answer was illustration. Voronezh-based artist Valeriy Zarytovsky created the first series of distinctive works that expanded the identity beyond type, and with each programme issue came an original poster, reinforcing the publication’s dual role as both club document and contemporary print artefact.
As the season progressed, the illustrations outgrew the programme itself. They moved into merchandise, outdoor communications, stickers and other formats, evolving from a supporting visual layer into a recognisable and independent element of the identity. Further illustrators, Yulia Chizh and Alexander Zavisha, joined the project as it expanded, each bringing a perspective shaped by practice outside football’s usual visual culture. Within the context of the sport, the project has become something relatively rare: a platform for artists who would not ordinarily consider football as part of their world.
The result, spanning an entire season, is both a print milestone for the club and a demonstration of what physical media can still do when it is taken seriously as a design object rather than a functional afterthought.
Sergey Zhigarev is an art director whose practice focuses on print and visual identity. The project was developed with marketing director Evgeny Popov, head of marketing Marina Vershinina, editor-in-chief Dmitry Emelyanov and designer Lev Nikolsky.
Website: behance.net/serezhazhigarev
Instagram: @serezha
Project: behance.net/gallery/240761719
Rodina FC Matchday Programmes and Illustrated Posters, 2024–25 season. Photography: Victoria Lescheva. Illustration: Valeriy Zarytovsky (@valerazaryta), Yulia Chizh (@okchizk), Alexander Zavisha (@sashazavisha).
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