I've been designing Arsenal flags since 2013, the majority of the time for the Arsenal supporters group RedAction. It all started with a massive crowd-surfer to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that 49 game unbeaten run.
The buzz I got seeing this go up at the Emirates every week was insane. It's also made it to Wembley a few times, as has the "BELIEVE" banner which was made for the 2014 FA Cup run. Back then we were desperate for an end to the trophy drought, and well you know the rest.
After initially going up in the Emirates it has since been behind the goal for the 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020 FA Cup final victories. If you watch the highlights of the 2014 final back you'll see it behind the net. There, I've just given you another reason to watch that game again. There were also some t-shirts produced with the design in the lead up to the final.
Since then I feel fortunate and proud to have designed a load of flags for RedAction, Arsenal themselves and with mates. Probably the most famous was the ones I did for Alexis Sanchez's dogs in 2017. You either loved it or hated it, I still think it's hilarious tbh.
You can see a collage of most of my designs at the bottom of this page, but I'll highlight a few more. For Arsène Wenger's 20th anniversary, together with a group of my Arsenal mates I designed a banner and matching thank you card that we all signed and was presented to the man himself at a charity do. However two years later it was announced he was leaving and we decided we had to revive and update the banner. We also produced a limited run of 30 t-shirts for the friends that helped get it made.
There's also the "The Greatest Club, The Greatest City" one I did in 2014. RedAction wanted a flag that shouted about our London roots and being the most successful club from our capital. I designed this featuring the famous Arsenal station tube roundel and the Victoria and Piccadilly lines that run to the club.
For the 2018/19 season it was time to retire the 49 flag and think about a new crowd-surfer. This time we wanted to go even bigger and worked on this 30m x 20m beast which I'm told is one of the largest, if not *the* largest, in the country.
The design itself isn't too complex, it's the 1970's cannon with the Victoria Concordia Crescit banner scroll from the old crest underneath. It also and uses the ‘ermine spot’ background pattern icon from that crest to border the top and bottom. Simple, but I love how this looks on a huge scale.
Above photo by @inthenorthbank. You can see me in yellow dragging the thing up the aisle of Block 6.
Now I write this in 2021 in the midst of a global pandemic and we're all missing sharing these moments with grounds full of fans. While from my point of view it's pretty cool seeing so many of my flags occupying the seats of the upper tier and club level at the moment, there's nothing I wouldn't give to take them all down and fill that space with us lot again.
Here's hoping it's not too much longer before we're back in there, you might spot me behind the North Bank goal waving one of my designs about or helping to sending up a crowd-surfer up the stand. Cheers, Sam. UTA.
