AN ARTIST who makes posters for Barrow AFC games says that he cannot stop due to the club having a good run.

Mike Thompson (48) was asked to design a poster for the Morecambe vs. Barrow game last year by fan group the Bluebirds Trust. Due to it falling on Halloween, he created an image with manager Pete Wild's face put on Freddy Krueger's body, the famous horror movie character from 80s slasher classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

Since then, Mike has come up with a new design each week for the Bluebirds fans to enjoy under his brand name 'Kiss My Arts.' He said that there has now been a superstition built up around his posters, as Barrow won three games and drew two before losing to Wrexham on New Year's Day. "If I didn't do one, it would ruin our good run," Mike said. 

"I'm doing for zero money, I am doing it for the fun, for the craic of it." Mike uses an application on his iPad to create the images. Although he had been creating graphic designs for years before Artificial Intelligence became a viable tool, he used this to help him make posters quickly before games.

"I embrace it," Mike said. "For me, it's a good tool. It's just having that thought and having the creativity. There's still a little bit of technical work with it." Every week, he has to think of a clever way to express the rivalry between the two teams and make sure that the generated art looks good enough to be displayed. 

Mike said that he noticed other teams doing similar poster designs, and 'nobody else was doing it for Barrow.' He went with a Disney Pixar theme for his posters but will look at doing something else for next season. 

In the meantime, Mike will keep thinking of new designs each week. "I am racking my brains for the Tranmere game," he admitted.