‘Within 10 mins, Andy had nicked it’: illustrator on his ubiquitous image of Andy Burnham

Chow’s illustration has appeared on billboards, beer mats, mugs, aprons and record inlays and featured in Burnham’s election campaigns. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

It was shortly after Andy Burnham’s famously rousing speech outside the Manchester Central Library in October 2020 that Stanley Chow decided to draw him. Or rather his wife did.

“It was the pandemic and we were all so down in the dumps at that point,” says the illustrator, speaking from his home in the city this week. But I remember looking around and he had just moved everyone.”