The Australian football scene is blessed with an array of talented creators that design artworks and clothing based around the beautiful game.
One such man part of this movement is John Barrett, founder of 3032. FC. A passionate football fan and a graphic designer, he told Kick360 that his project mainly started as a way to give him direction and a focus after university.
“I just wasn’t doing much with myself. I was trying to get a job as a graphic designer and I had just finished uni and had a lot of free time and was working sporadically. I was drawing anyway and thought ‘I may as well do something here’, because I was drawing for my own enjoyment and I decided to start it up online and get it out there,” Barrett said.
“It started with mostly just my friends following it and it took off a little bit.”
Barrett now has nearly 5,000 followers on Instagram, and his work is garnering much praise. He says that he is inspired by current events and trends in the football world, and aims for a light-hearted approach.
“I try and do stuff that makes me laugh. I feel that if you’re making yourself laugh there’s a chance you might make other people laugh.
“If it’s something that’s topical and makes me laugh then that’s enough to get it out there. There’s a lot of trends with players that are really popular at the moment or making news so I just let the news decide and see what comes out.”
A key tenet of 3032 FC is sustainability, be it when creating prints or items of clothing; the materials used are eco-friendly, and Barrett chooses to make the number of items created low to reduce waste. This is something he learnt early on in his venture.
“I designed some socks and I was pretty naive about it… I think I ordered about 200 pairs of socks and I might’ve sold 80… And I was just looking at it going ‘this is ridiculous, it just doesn’t make sense to waste all of those resources and all of that money’. So from then on it was a focus of just doing small things, nothing that’s creating too much waste.
“With the t-shirts we released recently… I might’ve bought 30 of them and sold them all. We didn’t want any of them hanging around, we didn’t want them coming from a sweat shop. We wanted to make sure that even if it means you have to sell them for a little bit more and there’s a little bit less return, it’s nicer using more genuine means to create them rather than going the cheaper route. “
Some of Barrett’s work will be featured at the Ultra Football pop-up in Melbourne this Saturday, alongside many different creators. He says the idea came about after the success of a smaller scale collaboration.
“I was chatting with Alex and Paul from PFC and they mentioned they were gonna try sell some kits at a mate’s cafe near me… [so] they said come down and make some prints.
“I got there in the morning and there was people lining up out the front of the cafe. At the end of the day – I think we were meant to stop at 1pm – we were still chatting to people at 5pm, and we were like ‘we have to do this again’. COVID pushed it back a little bit, but it’s pretty crazy. We’re gonna get a ton of people involved and it’s on such a big scale now. I can’t wait”
The PFC Vintage x Talking Shirt Pop Up 2.0 occurs this Friday the 17th of December from 4-9pm AEST at Ultra Football, 200 Gipps Street Abbotsford.
Image Source: 3032.FC
