Philadelphia artist Dan Duffy makes art out of words, and not in the traditional sense. He doesn’t write books or poetry. Instead he takes handwritten words and forms them into images of various icons, places and moments in history.
Recently, Duffy has ventured into the world of the Kansas City Chiefs. He first created an image to commemorate QB Patrick Mahomes’ incredible 2018, featuring every stat from the MVP-winning season. Now, Duffy has made a new tribute for Chiefs Kingdom that celebrates the franchise’s 60th season and Super Bowl LIV championship.
“Kansas City is one of the great football towns in the country. The Chiefs organization is absolutely deserving of this win, and I wanted to do something special for the fans,” Duffy said in a press release. “Plus, us Philadelphians were rooting for ‘Big Red’ to get his first championship and we couldn’t be happier for him and his family!”
The word art of Arrowhead Stadium features the name of every player who played on the Chiefs from 1969-2019 — 1,292 in total.
Chiefs fans, this one's for you. Arrowhead Stadium handwritten with every Chief ever. Great gift for a die hard fan! pic.twitter.com/mxMRR6AK69
— Daniel Duffy (@RealArtOfWords) March 31, 2020
Arrowhead Stadium is known as one of the most iconic NFL stadiums, and Duffy believed that it would be the best image for his unique work.
“It’s a notorious place to play and figured it’s one image that Chiefs fans everywhere can relate to,” Duffy told Chiefs Wire.
Duffy’s process for creating this type of work is meticulous, with over 150 hours spent on this piece alone.
“I collect up to 50 reference images and sketch a completely original drawing of the stadium,” Duffy said. “Then it’s just line by line writing each name in chronological order. Once the initial sketch is done, it comes down to adding color and shading to make it pop.”
The plan for Duffy is to continue creating sports word art, with the goal of re-creating every major sports stadium in history using the names of every player from their respective franchises.
You can find more of Duffy’s work on his website and on his Twitter account.