Weightlifting

Weightlifting: Robert Shakespeare

What got you interested in the competition?

I was just looking through the newspaper one day and saw the blank coin spread and thought it was a really good idea so I thought I would have a go.

Why did you choose Weightlifting for your design?

Weightlifting has always been something I’ve had an interest in and something that I have partaken in myself at gyms and it’s always fascinated me the dynamic shapes that people take when they do specific manoeuvres and technique so I thought I would try and apply that to the coin if I could.

What was the inspiration behind your idea?

My inspiration was from seeing people do it in the gym arenas where I’ve been myself and I didn’t want to do the atypical design of someone holding aloft a weight because it’s a kind of generic one that everybody sees so I thought I would do something a bit different and when you do a squat In weightlifting its quite a powerful move because all the muscles in your legs are used and its quite an iconic thing I thought so I tried to translate that into the design and instead of drawing because I’m not the best at drawing so I thought I would just do the outline to see what the shape was.

How does it feel to know your coin is going to be in the pockets of millions of people for years to come?

Having my design out there feels really humbling, I never expected, as I say I’m not a professional artist so to have something like that on a national scale is really, really pleasing.