Stanley Chow, the illustrator behind the now-iconic image of Andy Burnham, has revealed how the mayor quickly adopted the drawing after it was posted on social media. The image, featuring a light scowl and dark attire, has become a visual shorthand for Burnham's anti-establishment sentiment, appearing on billboards, beer mats, mugs, aprons, and record inlays, as well as featuring in his election campaigns.
Inspiration during the pandemic
Chow, 51, who grew up in Altrincham and Stockport, said the idea to draw Burnham came after the mayor's rousing speech outside Manchester Central Library in October 2020. “It was the pandemic and we were all so down in the dumps at that point,” Chow told the Guardian. “But I remember looking around and he had just moved everyone. He was already a good mayor, but at that point we all thought: ‘Oh shit, he’s really good.’ And then my wife goes: you should draw Andy.”
Using Adobe Illustrator, Chow created the image and posted it on Twitter. “Within 10 mins, Andy had nicked it,” he said. Burnham initially used the image for his Twitter handle, and it has since been widely adopted. Chow described Burnham as “jolly and personable”, adding that his illustration captures “funny with just a little anger in there”.
Chow's artistic journey
Chow did his foundation course at Manchester Metropolitan before moving to Swindon. At 21, he returned to Manchester, working in his parents' chip shop while trying to get work. “I don’t want to blow smoke up my own ass but I’ve always been good, I always knew I would be an artist one way or another,” he said. His illustrations have since appeared in the New Yorker and Time magazine, and he is currently working on an exhibition for Manchester's Arndale shopping centre.
His style, he says, is “hard to pin down”, sitting between caricature and portraiture. His technique involves reducing a face to an assembly of shapes while keeping the subject “recognisably themselves”. The Burnham image, with its spot-on light scowl and navy/black attire, has become a proxy for the mayor's campaigns. “There is no tie, no,” Chow noted. Burnham later said he was “grateful to Stan for making me look cooler than I am”.
Unauthorised use by Reform UK
However, the image was also quickly appropriated by others. Within hours of Chow posting it, “it had been reused [and memed] to fuck”, most notably by senior Reform UK figures, including Nigel Farage and the Makerfield byelection candidate Robert Kenyon. Kenyon posted the image on social media, doctored with imagery and words to advance an anti-immigration sentiment. Chow was neither consulted nor gave permission for this use. “Memes are one thing, but something [nefarious] like that? That’s something else,” he said.
Chow took legal action, and Reform UK subsequently removed the images. “It’s all fair in love and war [on social media] as far as I’m concerned but when it comes to something like Reform, you have to draw a line,” he said. As for Burnham's initial use, Chow said he did not charge him at the time. “I think initially him using it felt like recognition enough for me. But yeah, don’t worry, [Burnham’s team] have licensed the image off me,” he added.
Future use of the image
With Burnham heading beyond Makerfield, Chow reflected on the image's journey. “I’m not sure I want the attention – I mean in some ways this has been my journey too,” he said. “But yes, I’d probably still send him a message.”
