Javier Arrés is a Spanish illustrator from Granada who creates detailed ink drawings. He’s always been inspired by busy cityscapes – whether real or imagined – from industrial landscapes to towns in the old SimCity games. The set of works we focused on in our feature saw him combine these influences with his love of all things football. In a series of cover designs for independent football magazine These Football Times, he created intricate depictions of some of the world’s most iconic football clubs. From the gargantuan Real Madrid to the famed Buenos Aires side River Plate, he brings as many signature aspects of a club as he can into each work, researching every date, every shirt, every player and every moment as he goes. We spoke to him about his love of the game, and the pressure of capturing the identity of these global institutions that so many people care so deeply about.
Stories with Javier Arrés