Lions’ game-day posters featured in art show
Orlando City SC’s connection to the local community of artists is ingrained into the club’s DNA.
Downtown murals accompanied the launch of Orlando City’s MLS logo. Matt Stone, a graphic designer on the Orlando City staff, said artists make up a large part of the club’s fanbase and those artists have been embraced over the years.
Orlando City-inspired art is featured in a new exhibit that highlights some of the unique posters sold during Lions games.
The heART of City Gameday Poster Art Show started on Oct. 6 and runs through the end of the month at the Rogers Kiene Building, 39 S. Magnolia Ave.
The show features four posters, created by local artists, and puts the posters alongside other original pieces from those artists.
The posters, artwork and Tshirts with the posters’ designs printed on them are available for sale during the shows. The Rogers Kiene building is open from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Local artist Eliezer Nieves, 34, who designed one of the posters for this season, said his connection with the WestArt District helped facilitate a relationship with Orlando City SC.
He was present for the opening night of the heart of City show, speaking with fans of his work and sharing the inspiration behind the original piece he had on display.
“It’s been a really cool opportunity — a godsend — to be connected with Orlando City because having my posters sold to hundreds of people. It’s cool to get my name out there and my brand,” Nieves said.
Stone has designed about six posters during the past three years. His first poster was the first one that fans could get on game day — a lion dressed as an astronaut floating through space and it was designed for Orlando City’s May 17, 2015, match against the L.A. Galaxy.
Orlando City won that match 4-0.
“We started off with getting different artists from around Orlando,” Stone said. “We started doing gameday posters in-house: funny, subtle jabs at opponents we were playing and stuff like that and just made cool art out of it.
“Eventually, we wanted to make a bigger platform and give local artists and the large art scene in Orlando a platform and create a community for our fans to come together and share art they thought was cool and they liked, and it spread like wildfire.”
The team started limiting the numbers of posters that were printed for each match, which gives each poster a limited-edition quality.
“I knew there was a market for it, but I didn’t know it was going to be this popular,” Stone said. “I didn’t know that people would want it as much as they have. The first poster, we sold over 2,000 copies of it. It was super humbling to know that there was that big of a demand for art and stuff that was happening locally and organically in Orlando.”
For Anthony Allotta and his 9-year-old son, Tony, the posters are keepsakes.
“At first, I thought it was a good game-day souvenir,” he said. “Then, you know, it was a nice collectible. Over the years, it’s gone from being a collectible to being more of a ritual.”
He added, “My son is 9 and we go to all the games together. It’s what we do. We first walk into the stadium and we go get our new poster.”
Allotta — a season ticket holder and member of Orlando City’s Society XXI — said at first the posters went on Tony’s wall. Now, they have so many, the posters need to be put away in a book.
“When you look at these posters now, you go back, and you look at all the old ones, it’s kind of like a walk down memory lane. Almost like the history of every season,” he said. “You get to go back and look at some of the guys and they’re no longer there.
“Just the other day, I saw in the stadium [former goalkeeper] Tally Hall was standing there, and my son was like ‘Remember that poster?’ ”