“Non-league football is our punk rock” – Alex Brown’s work for Eastbourne Town FC

“My involvement with the club started 2 or 3 years ago when a small group of friends wanted to support a local team they could afford to watch every week,” says graphic designer Alex Brown. “Eastbourne is my hometown and I was asked by the group to produce a few designs for stickers and badges for their supporters club (The Beachy Head Ultras or Pier Pressure).” From there, Alex has gone on to design posters, the match day programme and promotional materials for the club that please in the ninth tier of the English football league, using the town’s crest and club colours to provide some of the most stylish merchandise of any football club in the country.

“Non-league football is our punk rock, so I have always wanted the project to reflect that, it is a completely different world from that of Premier League football, therefore I don’t want the aesthetic of our club to mimic the design and art direction of top tier football,” says Alex. “Non-league football is having a drink and chatting to the players after the game, mixing with the opposition fans, watching football alongside dogs, away days in towns you didn’t know existed, pints of beer for a couple of quid and being able to take it on to the terraces. It’s essentially choosing to give your money to the local community and not to a soulless corporation.”

Alex studied graphic design at Kingston University and worked at various studios in London including Pentagram and SEA Design before relocating to Sussex. The Eastbourne Town FC project is constantly evolving and reflects the inclusive nature of the club and its community work. But it is the mandatory work that proves the most time consuming. “Each club in the division is required to provide a match day programme, or they are liable for a fine,” explains Alex. “There is a turn around time of 2-3 days between receiving content (results, match reports, photos) from the previous weekend’s games and compiling them into a 40pp programme and sending to print in time for the forthcoming fixture. There is certain criteria that the league stipulate should be included, such as team sheets, up to date league tables, fixture lists and results. There are no requirements as to how the programme is produced though, some clubs simply provide stapled sheets of A4 copy paper.”