Up the Seagulls! Alfie Wheatley turns Brighton & Hove Albion’s 2024/25 season into a series of typographic experiments

The graphic designer and art director Alfie Wheatley has been a Brighton & Hove Albion season ticket holder for nearly eight years. Born in Brighton, growing up on the South Coast in West Sussex and studying at the University of Brighton, since his early teens he’s followed the club across the UK and even Europe, to cities like Athens, Amsterdam, Marseille and Rome. Last season, he realised it was high time he merged football with his other passion – graphic design – and he created an experimental, type-led publication that traced the highs and lows of each game.

Alfie admits that “it didn’t end up being the most memorable season – missing out on European football, suffering two defeats to our rivals Crystal Palace, and watching them go on to win the FA Cup”. But this didn’t dampen his spirits toward the project. In fact, while they might not have won much, Alfie says it was “rewarding” to document each match. He continues: “The project became an exercise in experimental type layout as well as celebrating the ups and downs of the season in my own way.”

The project was also a chance for Alfie to creatively recharge, “working on something purely for myself, with no brief or client in mind”, he says. So while (much like a match of football) Alfie did want to have a number of rules that he adhered to, he also wanted to leave space for moments of unexpected brilliance that went off piste, much like that overhead kick that ends up winning the match, or the cheeky slide tackle that leaves a team one player down.

Each match was given a spread that documented the games line-up and results, with a layout that played homage to the visual culture of Brighton and the team they were playing. To align with his chosen club’s colours, Alfie kept the colour scheme of the publication to blue on white, but broke the flow up with cup matches being featured on a predominantly blue background. Structurally, most of the spreads feature the formations and pitch markings on one side with type on the other, although in some case Alfie let the typography supersede all other elements, like the spreads for Brighton’s match against Leicester and Ipswich, the latter of which sees the starting line-up taken over by a big bubbly type. While some of the typefaces take inspiration from the games themselves – like the LED screens or stadium typography – many come from Alfie’s hefty type bank that he’s built up over the years. “Some I’ve never had the chance to use, or some are from projects that didn't make the cut,” he says, “so this project was a great excuse to have a play with typefaces that I really admire.”

For Alfie, the spreads that work best are the ones that take direct inspiration from the rival team. Some are quite direct fits, like his use of Johnston (the typeface used for London Underground system) for their match against Fulham, and a charming cursive font for the match against Bournemouth – a fellow seaside town – to mimic the feel of a nostalgic holiday postcard. Some spreads take things one step further, reflecting Alfie’s experience of the match. For the teams match against Newcastle, “the furthest journey of the season”, Alfie used Margaret Calvert’s iconic road signage as a symbol of the slog.

As the project was just for his own joy and appreciation, Alfie really made use of his creative licence. “For the away loss against Crystal Palace (every Brighton fan’s worst nightmare), I intentionally used a typeface that’s difficult to read, so I wouldn’t have to be reminded of the result!” For Alfie’s sake, let’s hope next season he doesn’t have to use any more illegible lettering.