From gig poster creators, to Premier League match day artists. How one afternoon brought about an idea that would capture the hearts and minds of the local football adoring community. How a group of football adoring fans brought their love of their local club together with their passion for art. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 'Call Me Ted'.

When you spot a piece of art that speaks to you, it's a pretty special thing. This is what happened to us when we saw Call Me Ted's' works for the Ipswich Town vs Manchester United fixture. We simply had to have it. What went from a piece of art we shared with friends and family led us on to a path of discovery to establish just who exactly was behind all of this? 

After some quick social media detective work, plus the help of what turned out to be some mutual contacts, (thanks Tom Brown) we set about making contact with the creator's of CMT - and our day was ever so much better for it...

Cult Kits: Tell us a bit about yourselves and Call Me Ted…

Call Me Ted: We were born in the summer of 2024 with the aim of marrying our love of art and Ipswich Town Football Club. Individually we're me, Richard Haugh, my brother Steve Haugh, and our friends Kevin Bennett and Andy Mortimer.

CK: And we're guessing you support Ipswich Town?

CMT: Yes, we are very lucky to support the finest football team, the world has ever seen - Ipswich Town. 

CK: Earliest footballing memory?

CMT: I have no memory of the game, but there's a photo of us as children on the edge of the Portman Road pitch, as fans celebrate beating Oxford behind us. The internet tells me that the pitch invasion was premature as we ended up getting relegated at the end of that season, in 1986.

I've got slightly better memories of another pitch invasion, this time away at Oxford six years later when we clinched the old Second Division title. It was a good time to be entering teenage years and to be a Town fan.

Both my uncle and Kev's dad were stewards at Town when we were growing up so we used to get into home matches for free, but this meant arriving a couple of hours early. We used to take a tennis ball and have a kick around at the bottom of the Cobbold Stand before the crowds arrived.

 

 

 

CK: How did CMT start?

CMT: Me and Steve had been throwing around ideas for a creative project based around Ipswich for a while before we settled on the posters over the summer. We had history of creating artworks for the Uprock music nights we ran in Ipswich, along with Andy, and thought it would be fun to return to this, but focus on football instead of music.

We set ourselves the goal of working with 19 different artists to produce a gig-style poster for each of Town's 19 home games in their first season back in the Premier League. Steve, who did most of the poster designs for Uprock, would do the first and I'd start recruiting other artists for the subsequent matches.

 

 

The idea was we'd hand out versions of the posters to local shops, pubs and restaurants to put up in their windows ahead of the matches, and bring some colour to the town. 

Once we'd put out Steve's poster for the opening match with Liverpool there was no going back.

CK: How has it been received by fans and the creative community?

CMT: Genuinely mind blowing. It was meant to be a fun hobby project but it snowballed very quickly.

I remember feeling nervous walking into the first pub we took the Liverpool poster to, brown envelope tucked under arm and stuttering slightly as I tried to explain what we were planning on doing and if they'd like a poster for their window. To see their faces go from 'what do these chancers want' to 'ah, that's actually really good' will stay with me... and it escalated from there.

 

 

We now have a regular dozen or so places we take the posters to before they're revealed online, and it's been a treat getting their instant reaction, and then later seeing them shout about the design online.

It was the same when we made our first post on twtd.co.uk, a much-loved Town forum we've used under different aliases for more than 20 years. 'What happens if they think it's a load of shit or jumping on a bandwagon?' Again, we needn't have worried and the support has been much appreciated.

And then, within a week of handing out the Liverpool posters we had a message from Ipswich Town to ask if they could use the image on the front of their official match-day programme, and if we'd be happy to provide artwork for the rest of the season. Needless to say, that felt a bit nuts.

So yeah, it's been an unexpected treat so far and we love making new friends. We hadn't heard of some of the artists we've worked with before we started Call Me Ted, but they liked the first couple, we loved what they were doing, and we went from there.

 

 

CK:What’s been the inspiration behind CMT?

CMT: I’ve got a poster on my walls by David Shrigley, promoting a match between Whitehawk and Bognor Regis. I really love everything about it - from the tag line of 'a filthy fiesta of football', to the fact it's got the wrong date, it mentions that the match is  dog friendly and that it only cost about £10 to buy the signed poster.

It's fair to say this was a heavy influence.

But alternative posters advertising football matches don't seem to be a thing in the same way they are for gigs, so we feel like we've entered a field with plenty of untapped potential.

 

 

CK: Do you have a favourite artist that you have worked with so far?

CMT: I think it's whoever the current artist is. We go on quite an intense experience together, from talking about ideas, offering support and feedback along the way, then meeting up to get the posters signed and finally having a drink together on match day ahead of the game they've done the artwork for. 

We've loved getting to know each artist, spending time with them and then producing something we're all proud of. For us, it's the stuff of dreams.

CK: Do you have a specific goal for CMT?

CMT: When we started we had the sole goal of producing posters which we could put up around town, and then sell signed versions to make the artists some money. We knew that we wanted each to be different to the last, so that fans might love one, hate the next, but at the end of the season we'd have a range of styles and themes we were proud of.

Steve set the tone with the Liverpool poster by focusing on the relationship of a father and daughter, and that's something we wanted to be central to our project - to try and broaden the imagery and themes associated with football.

 

 

But things have moved really quickly and it feels like each week brings a new addition to the project, and therefore the goalposts keep moving.

Overall, I think it helped that we had a simple idea and just got on with it. Beyond a big party and exhibition at the end of the season we don't have a masterplan for what follows, but that approach has served us well so far.

CK: What are your thoughts on how football’s rise/dominance across fashion and lifestyle?

CMT: I'm all in on the move away from football being associated with any form of thuggery, and fashion has played a part in this. I'm a big fan of things like Juno Calypso working with Umbro via OOF, Corbin Shaw's England flags and some of Martine Rose's designs.

In general, it's great seeing old shirts become part of everyday wardrobes and randomly spotting someone wearing a 1992 Sheffield Wednesday kit while playing at Goals in Ipswich.

CK: Do you think we’ll continue to see a creative output that uses football as its muse?

CMT: Given the feedback we've received from other clubs, I fully expect other teams to do what we've been doing next season.

Especially when it comes to programmes, the format has become a bit stale. Jamie Eke is doing great work with the Brighton programmes this season, and Brentford are telling an ongoing cartoon story on the front of theirs... but most find a stock photo of a player and add the date underneath.

 

 

CK: Do you have any artists you admire/ take inspiration from at the moment? Who really stands out?

CMT: When it comes to football, David Squires is the don in my eyes. The man's a genius and we cherish a portrait of Bobby Robson he did for us a few years ago, as a present for Steve. Elsewhere, we're big fans of Parra, street artists like BLU, Maya Hayuk and of course Banksy... Geoff McFetridge, Art Spiegelman... there's a really long list of people we like.

Current favourites within the UK include Ruben Dangoor and Kelly Anna, and Jelly Green's paintings are amazing.

CK: When can we work with you?

CMT: Our door is most definitely open.