‘It was all just a bit of fun – that’s all I ever intended it to be’
TEN years ago, Christian Amodeo, who was proudly “born and bred in Cardiff”, came up with an idea for a logo for his home city. Taking inspiration from the I Love NY logo, Chris tweaked the red heart design and added “I Love The ‘Diff”.
There was nothing to suggest in 2009 that the simple design would become a local cult brand, complete with its own website and product range stocked in shops right across Wales, still going strong in 2019.
Chris said: “I think I created the logo as a way to show my own rekindled passion for a city so much improved by the time I returned from living in London in 2006.”
At first, no-one was struck on his initial draft. The stroke of genius came when he added the “s” after the heart on the design, he said.
“That’s when people started getting excited about it,” he said. The Echo thought it was a quirky idea and featured the design in an article that August.
The brand was “officially” launched and the rest, as they say, is history. Remembering that day, Chris – who now writes a monthly column for the Echo – said: “The article featured a photo, taken by a newspaper photographer in the castle grounds, of my beautiful then girlfriend Helena, kindly modelling an ill-fitting men’s prototype T-shirt.
“The story forced me to quickly finish the website and in the days that followed we sold quite a few T-shirts.”
T-shirts came with a choice of either a red or blue heart, which were intended to represent the Welsh dragon and Cardiff City FC.
Before long, as the I Loves The ‘Diff brand expanded, it was featured in the national UK press, on national radio and even primetime TV – Alex Jones even wore one of their “Cheers, Drive” T-shirts on the One Show.
The idea spawned a Cardiff version of the London Underground map and the Cardiff Bus Song, which went viral after it was played on Radio One, although both of those caused controversy for falling foul of copyright laws.
Fast-forward 10 years and things have changed dramatically for Chris, now 42.
Not only is he now married to Helena, who he met in a houseshare in London, the couple now have their first child together. Family life has meant I Loves The ‘Diff has taken a bit of a backseat.
He said: “At times, the brand had a lot of momentum behind it. But then 18 months ago we had a baby girl, Ella, who is just a bundle of fun. She is constantly making us laugh and sometimes cry.
“At the moment, it’s like daddy daycare on Fridays and half a day on Wednesday. My dad has just had a hip operation so my parents can’t do as much as they would perhaps like. My time is spent on anything and everything else.
“I was desperately into what I did because it was my baby and I threw everything at it. But sometimes you need to take a break from it, find some distance to recharge before you go again.”
So is there more in the pipeline? “Whatever happens will naturally happen,” said Chris.
The self-confessed doodler, who spent much of his childhood drawing with pens and paper with his brother, never had any grand plans to set down roots in Cardiff, let alone create a brand which celebrated it.
He left Cardiff in his twenties to pursue a career in journalism in London. In 2006, he came back to work for his dad’s building company.
“I had moved back to Cardiff but it wasn’t a longed-for move or planned in any way,” he explained. “It wasn’t in the long-term plan – I didn’t really have a plan. It was more of an experience. I didn’t know if I would love or hate living back here again. But I rediscovered my home town – that was it, really. I stayed ever since.”
Cardiff had changed while Chris was living in London – and very much for the better, he thinks.
“Cardiff is a lot better than I remember growing up. I came back in 2006 and I knew even then there was a massive improvement, with St David’s being built. I know that’s not the be all and end all, but it made a big difference to that part of town.
In 2007, I convinced Helena to come down to join me from London.
“The indy side has really flourished over the years and it’s great to see that side developing.
“In terms of creativity, there are so many young people in the city who either stay or come back after graduation. It’s viable for them to stay here rather than head to Bristol or London.
“There’s that kind of creative network now – I don’t think it existed all those years ago when I started out. There’s a much more open network that people can plug into and there is just so much more happening. They say you can’t even have an affair in Cardiff because someone would notice. It’s like a big village.”
I Loves The ‘Diff started off with just a Twitter account in 2009 and a basic website. In 2012, the business became a limited company and Chris started to push it harder.
Today, the brand has 66,000 followers on Twitter and a further 30,000 on Instagram and Facebook. Even now, Chris finds it hard to believe just how much of a chord his idea struck.
“It was in the days pre-social media and it was all just a bit of fun – that’s all I ever intended it to be,” said Chris. “The idea of someone spending their own money on something I designed and putting it on and wearing it with pride, I was like, ‘Wow!’
“Even now, every time, it gives me a really big sense of pride.”
Not everyone always saw the funny side, though. In February 2011, Chris created a spoof London Undergroundtype map for the city of Cardiff that became an internet hit in a matter of days.
Inspiration for the idea came to him while waiting for a Cardiff bus one day.
“Sometimes, when you’re in the rain waiting for a bus that never seems to come or you are stuck in a traffic jam on Cathedral Road, you could just wish you could run for the Tube and be in Caerphilly or wherever in no time,” he said at the time.
When he saw a BBC news story about a new Metro rail network in south-east Wales, Chris decided to finish the map off with help from Google maps. But Transport for London was less than impressed with his copycat version and asked him to take the design down.
Chris said: “People seemed to love it. It was just a really silly thing at the end