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Typographer, paint-pourer and football nut Craig Black creates mesmerising artistic celebration of the Euros

Scottish designer and football nut Craig Black is celebrating the Euros with a classy alternative to pints and bellowing: a football-based art installation titled The Fusion series.

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Hand holding a football painted with red, yellow, orange and white acrylic strokes representing Germany's national colours, with black panel visible at top

Partly inspired by Euros fever, partly by the fact that Scotland qualified for their first major football tournament in more than 20 years, the pieces in the series take the form of footballs bearing acrylic paint representations of the colours of different countries' football kits.

Blue acrylic paint drips down a white football on a white cylindrical base in an artist's studio setting
Blue paint pours onto a football in a swirling pattern of white and red strokes during the acrylic fusion paint-pouring process

Black describes his process as "acrylic fusion paint-pouring", and has adorned nine footballs, each representing a country competing in the Euro 2020 tournament: Germany, Netherlands, France, England, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy – and of course, Scotland.

Black's signature process is certainly a mesmerising one – the sort of ASMR-leaning footage that you lose ten minutes to when it shows up on Facebook out of nowhere and you can't take your eyes off.

Blue swirled football with yellow and gold acrylic paint detailing, representing Scotland's football kit colours from Craig Black's Fusion series
Two footballs with swirling acrylic paint patterns in blue and white for France, and white, black, red and gold for Germany, with "France v Germany" text between them
Spherical football painted with swirling blue, red and white acrylic paint patterns representing a country's football kit colours from Craig Black's Fusion series

Clearly aware of the beauty in the making as much as the final pieces, Black has ensured that his project has been thoroughly documented in a series of work in progress still images by Ryan Johnston and a set of hypnotic videos and final stills by Garth Ivan.

The video also features some superb custom typography Black created for the project that aims to "help communicate the unique character of the artworks," he says. "Elegant and fluid, the typography uses thick and thin strokes that flow effortlessly into each other, mirroring the liquid acrylic fusion patterns that wrap around the footballs."

Spherical football painted with swirling red, navy and white acrylic paint patterns representing a country's football kit colours
Two marbled footballs representing England and Scotland's national colours, with "England v Scotland" text between them on a white background
Two marbled footballs side by side with "Spain v Sweden" text between them, the left ball swirled in red and yellow, the right in blue and yellow
Deep crimson football with white lightning bolt patterns created through acrylic paint-pouring technique for Craig Black's Fusion series
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