WELCOME TO, HOOLICARDS.

HOOLICARDS.

A football calling card archive.

How did the idea for Hoolicards come about?

I went through a bit of a phase as a teenager, reading books on football hooligans, most of which are crap. 

But they held a certain fascination for me at the time. I went into a book shop when I was about 14 and they had an ICF book by Bill Gardner on display. On the cover it had the famous, “Congratulations you’ve just met…” card front and centre. It was the first one I’d ever seen. That was it, I thought what the hell is that ! I did a bit of digging, asked my Dad about them and he knew they had been a thing back in the day. So from then on I started seeking them out. 

Why the fascination with the calling cards? 

Theres just something stupidly brilliant about them. I’ve always had a keen interest in print design, typography, fanzines, the do it yourself zine culture. Punk was always the reference point, but I wasn’t really into that, to me these were way better, cos they were football related. The phrase ‘accidental graphic design’ gets trotted out a lot, but to me calling cards are the complete epitome of that.

What is it about their story/design? What do they represent to you?

Aesthetically I think they’re great, all of them in their own way. But its also the thought of all the stories behind their creation. Sacking off the pub on a Friday night to Letraset a calling card, xeroxing a load off the work printer and handing them out to your mates. Its all a bit mental, in a good way. Its hard to know how serious they all are really. Some of the slogans are pretty grim, you don’t really know whether to take them seriously or just laugh cos they’re all a massive piss take. 

What was the first card that really captured your imagination? 

I already mentioned the ICF card, aside from that Ive got a few favourites. Pompey have some good ones, they clearly had a good copywriter on the firm. The one that everyone went mad for on Insta was West Ham’s ‘Pie & Mash Firm…’ haha.

You must’ve seen hundreds of these by now. The 71 you’ve posted must mean you’ve seen a fair few shit ones and only post the cream of the crop. What makes a good card and what makes a bad card?

The truth is I think they’re all good and bad. They’re a bit ying and yang, they’ve got a real sinister charm, thats what makes them soo interesting. 

Its sounds a bit over the top but I think they’re cultural artefacts and it’s a pleasure archiving them for other people to enjoy.