Jan. 4—Growing up in Chester County, Joshua Ash had a Drake’s Cake advertisement on his wall. It was a picture of the 1988 Flyers holding boxes of cakes and “clowning around.” At the time, the 13-year-old Flyers fan liked that it deviated from the typical serious team photo.
“It was different,” Ash said. “They’re tough on the ice, but here they are, letting their hair down and just being silly.”
Now 48 years old and a professional graphic designer, Ash is designing posters that may be hanging on a young Flyers fan’s wall. It’s a journey that’s come full circle, an idea that’s fascinating and surreal to Ash.
Ash has always doodled and sketched. In school, he was the kid who filled the margins of his notebooks. He “wasn’t an athletic kid by any stretch,” he said, but he loved all the Philadelphia teams. However, the Flyers had a special place in his heart.
Ash’s father, Richard, was a big hockey fan in the ’70s and ’80s, and the television usually was tuned to Flyers games. Bobby Clarke’s face and Gene Hart’s voice were familiar sights and sounds. Ash fell in love with the organization himself in the late ’80s.
