Stanley Chow Interview – Rangers Youth Development Company

We spoke to Stanley Chow, the renowned Manchester artist behind our latest Rangers Lotto campaign, about his illustrations of Light Blues legends Ally McCoist, Davie Cooper, Ian Durrant and Graeme Souness.

Stanley, a lifelong Manchester United supporter, has a passion for art, football and music and his signature portraits of footballers, musicians, film and TV stars are currently proudly displayed in an exhibition celebrating 30 years of his work at The Edge Theatre in his home city.

Chow’s career blossomed when Jack and Meg White from U.S. rock band The White Stripes spotted his work and commissioned him to create artwork for theirIcky Thump album, which led to a Grammy nomination in the ‘Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition’ category.

Since then he has drawn iconic bands and artists like David Bowie, The Smiths, Blur, Nirvana, The Stone Roses, Liam Gallagher, Prince and Stevie Wonder.

His football portrait illustrations, which he describes as an homage to the Panini stickers he collected in the 1980’s, really took off when legendary Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids spotted Stanley’s version of Red Devils’ legend Wayne Rooney on social media and requested one of his own.

He has drawn a host of footballers ever since including Eric Cantona, Gazza, George Best, Diego Maradona, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Marcus Rashford, Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland but his illustration of Sir Alex Ferguson is among his favourites – a portrait he personally presented to the former Old Trafford boss for his birthday.

The Rangers Youth Development Company was looking for a fresh Rangers Lotto campaign for 2024 so we approached Stanley who has created these incredible interpretations of four true blue Ibrox heroes.

Discussing his artistic process, Chow told us: “I looked at pictures of Ally McCoist over the last 20 years and also from his playing career and kind of learned his face.

“I don’t copy from just one photograph, I really have to know a face and catch the little nuances and once I do that I pack them all in to one image.

“It’s a merging of 10 or 15 years of McCoist into one and the era is known by the shirt he wears. Some images take longer to do than others, McCoist was about three or four hours but Graeme Souness was probably nailed in about 45 minutes.

“He has a long nose and as soon as you put the moustache there and his distinctive hair and eyes you know it’s Souness. He was quite easy to get.

“If I’m given plenty of photo references it’s fine but I have always been familiar with Davie Cooper because I used to collect football stickers so I knew who he was.

“I also knew Ian Durrant because he played for Everton so I was aware of them all.

“I mainly draw faces, that’s what I’m best known for, and I just like to illustrate familiar faces that people like – actors, footballers, people that I admire really.

“I was born in Manchester and grew up in a chip shop. When I was a kid I used to draw on chip paper.

“Later on when I was working in the chippy, a guy once asked me what I wanted to do and I said, ‘be an artist’ so he got me an interview with an ad agency and it all started from there really.

“I was kind of a jobbing illustrator when Facebook was coming in and Twitter was starting and it was a new marketing tool for people.

“I did a picture of Wayne Rooney and Edgar Davids saw it, wanted one of himself and he then used it as his Twitter avatar for a year or so. That got me back into drawing more footballers really.

“The Brazil team from the 1982 World Cup got me into football and that’s when I first realised what The Beautiful Game meant. I’ve already done a picture of Zico and that era of football was so exciting. I’d like to do more from that Brazil side.

“I did some work for The White Stripes in 2007 and I got nominated for a Grammy Award. That got me noticed in America and from there on I started working for The New Yorker, Washington Post and New York Times.

“I live really close to Old Trafford, I’m a Manchester United fan and season ticket holder and my illustration of Sir Alex Ferguson for The Govan Boy poem by Tony Walsh gave me the chance to have dinner with him a number of times.

“All I do is draw pictures and then I’m getting a message from his secretary saying Sir Alex would like to have dinner with you!

“It was a real privilege listening to his stories. I got to present him with it for his birthday and it was a really proud moment for me.

“I’m well aware of how revered Sir Alex, Walter Smith and Archie Knox are in Scotland.

“I love football and I love music so to work in those areas is brilliant.

“There is an exhibition of my work in a little theatre just around the corner from where I live. I get more out of that because it’s my home part of Manchester and it’s nice to give something back.

“I also did a drawing of Eric Cantona for an exhibition in the National Football Museum and I loved him, he is one of my favourite Manchester United players.

“I only thought he would be a one or two season wonder but he was there for five seasons and I don’t think we would have achieved so much without him really.

“We had 20 years of continual success under Sir Alex and we were spoiled to be honest. Only Liverpool had a period of sustained success like that in the history of the English league.

“I’m optimistic about Manchester United’s future now that Jim Radcliffe is in. He put more money into United in his first week than the Glazer’s have probably done in 20 years and we are getting new people in to key positions at the club.

“We are playing Rangers in pre-season, I don’t go to many away games these days, I normally just go to Old Trafford to watch the team, but hopefully it’s a good game.”