Two artists who figured out how to make faces out of dice expressed their happiness when Manchester City asked them to construct a likeness of manager Pep Guardiola.

To mark Guardiola’s 500th game as manager of the team, Ross Montgomery and Ben Hoblyn of Derby’s Dice Ideas were invited to produce the artwork. The 33-year-old couple, who first connected at school, were inspired to begin making portraits out of dice after witnessing others using Rubik Cubes to create artwork during the COVID-19 lockdown. “It was something that we were really enthusiastic to undertake,” Mr. Hoblyn told the BBC. What makes it so fantastic is that Pep is a very well-known and seasoned manager.

When Manchester City hired Mr. Hoblyn and Mr. Montgomery to produce Guardiola’s image, they had already done dice portraits of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Adele, Nicki Minaj, and even Yoda from Star Wars. However, while they were working on the photo, which took six to seven hours to finish, the two were unable to see any live action of the Manchester derby on December 15. “We do not know if Pep has seen it,” Mr. Hoblyn stated.The video that Manchester City released was placed on his Instagram account, but we were not sure if it was him or if his social media team was doing it for him.

How the procedure operates According to Mr. Hoblyn, the two of them work using a combination of computers to create the designs. In order to portray one of the faces of a dice, they first placed a picture of Guardiola into a computer, which reduced it to pixels. The algorithm then gave each pixel one of six hues. The two then placed each individual dice in the proper location to make the portrait using the computer-generated roadmap. Once Mr. Hoblyn and Mr. Montgomery have fixed all the dice and placed it inside a frame, the piece will return to Manchester City.

Additionally, Disney, Paramount Studios, and Madison Square Garden in New York have commissioned their work. “We created numerous videos showcasing our work on Instagram and TikTok, which ended up becoming viral and generating orders for us,” Mr. Hoblyn continued. “We first intended to have some fun and maybe sell some items along the road, but everything has been fantastic so far.”It has expanded more than we anticipated because we are now recognized globally, have sold an increasing number of pieces, and have partnered with more companies.”