Back in the late 1970's, the National Football League employed the services of many established young, up and coming artists to produce artwork for publications, posters and promotions. Many of these artists had long and fruitful careers with the NFL and produced some of the most memorable sporting art ever seen. Artists such as Chuck Ren, Jim Lamb, Paul Kratter and Keith Batcheller particularly gave us some memorable images, including program covers, prints and the now highly desirable Damac range of team and city themed posters.
This blog is a tribute to those artists and their wonderful work, and in particular the late Charles Ren, whose work continues to be inspirational and influential to aspiring artists like myself. We hope this site not only highlights some of these fantastic works, but also serves as a fitting tribute to Chuck.
Throughout the blog, we'll have features and interviews with artists like Paul Kratter, Keith Batcheller and Chuck's son Jon, who learned from his father and is a talented and successful artist in his own right. There'll be special focuses on the famous Damac range of posters, detailed analysis, and stories behind their creation. We've also got our own Damac tributes to share, where we have created our own team themed style posters.
We'll also be featuring pieces on 'Pro!' magazine, and the fantastic art that graced the Gameday program covers.
This blog will be an ongoing project, as we uncover more examples of the artists' works and the stories behind them, and we hope this becomes a useful resource and interesting archive of their work.
Enjoy the blog!
Dan Tearle and Michael Princip
