The initial release of the publication was halted so that the team could design the physical Caricolor postcards. Understandably, the football kit has received a lot of attention, but Calum really loves The Island audiobook: “The script is based on is the first step I took in realising The Island. The sound production and recording were handled incredibly sensitively, and it took a good few weeks of scouring global sound maps and topographic radio to piece it all together,” he says. He picks out the 1980s Italian Serie A and Turkish Süper Lig-inspired panini cards, designed by creative lead Andrew Liu and meticulously processed for that aged look, as another favourite. With the video, sound and illustration all inspired by West Africa, the Caribbean and South America, the project feels tight despite its enormity. “I’m thinking and acting from a place where world building and meaningful collaboration are the ultimate guides,” says Calum. And in the end, all he hopes is that “people are open to following the design-focused, Afro-futuristic evolution of Caricom in this new direction”.
Though The Island is the framework for presenting this alternative vision, it’s much more accurate to call it a world. This is because after the release of Calum’s book A New Formation: How Black Footballers Shaped the Modern Game, he was deeply interested in “different modes of storytelling”. And so he lists off the mediums used to bring it to life, including “moving postcards, The Island stamps, the photo shoot, the handmade hats and our upcoming short 3D film of The Island”. Not to mention the collaboration with UK producer Conducta on the audiobook, the 3D-printed whistles produced by Black-owned studio North West World or the Nike-made special edition football kits. Calum attributes this expansiveness to creative sessions with creative Diogo Lopes, humbly noting that “I think my imagination was the largest hurdle”.