Artist Captures Every Detail of the World Cup’s Biggest Plays

Rick Hincks. Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

If you’re looking for World Cup-themed art that truly captures your obsessive need to replay each and every goal and crucial play over and over, reviewing multiple angles to truly experience the match, British graphic designer Rick Hincks has you covered. As reported by the Huffington Post, Hincks, a big-time fan of the Manchester City club, has created a series of elegantly simple posters (available for $20) that capture the movement of the ball and the players during key plays of important games.

Since beginning the series in November, Hincks has covered both historic past matches and major plays in the 2014 World Cup currently headed for a Germany-Argentina final. The purely graphic images feature just two colors, marking the players’ positions by their numbers, and the ball’s trajectory as it approaches the goal, bouncing, ricocheting, and being passed and shot.

Rick Hincks. Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

Rick Hincks.
Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

“As football fans, we all have our reasons for supporting our teams, and we all have those moments in our club’s history that help rekindle the love for our club. Those moments that make us realize just why we put ourselves through the years of pain and occasional triumph… if we’re lucky,” Hincks explains on his website. “These prints have been created as a way to capture those moments forever, broken down into their simplest forms.”

Though most depict pivotal goals, some posters focus on other important on-field events, such as Tim Howard’s record 16 saves for the US in their quarterfinal loss to Belgium, or the already-infamous Luis Suarez biting incident in Uruguay’s match against Italy, both in this year’s tournament.

Rick Hincks. Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

Rick Hincks.
Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

Before he begins each piece, Hincks carefully pores over the game footage, examining all the available camera angles, creating screen-grabs that clearly show the ball’s trajectory and players’ movements. The process takes hours.

“The difficulty comes in tracking the movement. I’ve been asked if I use data and co-ordinates, I wish,” said Hincks in an email to the Huffington Post. “Some are really basic such as penalties or free kicks, others are quite complex, such as long runs, a lot of passing or where the ball bounces a lot. Other factors such as camera operators who like to zoom, low-res footage and poor pitch markings cause a few problems at times.”

Rick Hincks. Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

Rick Hincks.
Photo: courtesy Rick Hincks.

Hincks does create his artistic representations of iconic match moments by request, but he also finds that even non-fans can appreciate his work. “I think the best response is being told by people who aren’t interested in football that they are happy for their partner to hang [the piece] in their house,” he says. “Even though it’s a football print, it means that the design is being respected and not just the sporting moment.”


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