It isn’t just street art that inspired Miriam’s design. She’s a multimedia artist with plenty of other influences. “Maybe I’m more of an explorer among designers,” she muses. “I like to work digitally, but also with my hands.” She often works with textiles, recently creating a patch for Bayern München’s women’s team that fans could purchase. She sometimes goes to see them play, although she does point out that as a child she rooted for the other side: “My brother was a fan of the Reds, but I was a fan of the Blues – TSV 1860 München.” The connection between her art style and football goes back a lot further than just her childhood, though. “It’s important to remember that graffiti and football have a long tradition. When you walk through the city, you often see tags of fans of the city’s two biggest football clubs playing a match.”
The urban side of Munich was important for Miriam to highlight, but her eclectic design also includes some elements of the natural world, including stylised flowers and chestnut tree leaves. “These weren’t just my favourite trees for climbing as a child, they are usually in every beer garden in Munich. In the past, brewers used to keep their beer cool in the cellars under the shade of chestnut trees.” Munich’s open-armed attitude to street art has even stretched to public gardening. “Nowadays it’s also possible to adopt the small areas around trees on the streets and plant them with your neighbours,” Miriam explains.
Another thing someone might notice, looking at Miriam’s design, is the prominent use of the colour yellow. Every year, UEFA asks the chosen artist to pick a colour that represents their city. Last year’s artist, Supermundane, chose green to represent London’s parks, and this year Miriam has chosen yellow. This is for a number of different reasons. Firstly, the straightforward: “Yellow is part of the flag and the crest of the city,” she notes. Secondly, the expressive: “It is also the colour of creativity and inspiration, and good mood.” Lastly, the downright romantic: “Sometimes in Munich, we have a phenomenon where the wind carries sand from the Sahara into the city, and it bathes the sky in a yellow-orange light.”
As well as being the first artist to include elements of street art in their Champions League final design, Miriam has also broken another barrier, becoming the first woman chosen for the project since it started in 2019. “I’m very happy to be the first woman and in this position to encourage and support other women,” she says. But, for her, the art always comes first. “Artistic work should take the foreground. I hope that this artwork will appeal to and unite a broad target group; football certainly encompasses a lot of different groups of people.”
So, when you see her work on your TV screen or in person at the game on 31 May, hopefully you will remember her message – just like football, art should always be accessible to everyone.
