Sussex TikTok creator partners with Manchester City after viral video celebrating Champions League win
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Conor Smith, 24 - known on TikTok and Instagram as cls_graphix - has amassed more than 515,000 followers on his social media platforms.
The footballer, who has played at a semi-professional level for Broadbridge Heath, honed his skills as an artist to create unique, imaginative videos based on his favourite sport. The clips have been watched by millions of people worldwide.
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Hide Ad“I create fun and creative videos that revolve around photo editing/animation/design and football,” Conor said.
“I started just after lockdown when I decided to buy an iPad with the intention of going into book illustration.
“But after finding it more enjoyable doing my own little projects. I uploaded a video mixing [Kylian] Mbappe and [Erling] Haaland’s face and overnight, that amassed over a million views. It kickstarted my page.”
Having built up a huge online following, Conor has been invited to play in charity football matches with other social media creators.
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Hide AdHe explained: “I’ve been able to travel up and down the country, from Birmingham to Cornwall to Norwich, where I’ve had the opportunity to meet many other creators and people like JaackMaate that I’ve grown up watching on YouTube.”
Conor, a Leeds United fan, often receives comments from some of the biggest clubs in the world, recognising his content but his biggest achievement to date came this week when he was contacted by the social media team at Manchester City.
It came after Conor had uploaded an animation, celebrating the Premier League club’s first ever Champions League win - which made them the first British team since 1999 to secure the treble.
Conor said: “After uploading a Man City related video in my ‘animating football badges until I get recognised’, the City social media admin got in contact with me via DM to thank me for all the tags and shares. They’d seen the video and wanted to collaborate by posting it on their own accounts.
“I genuinely thought it must’ve been a fake account.”
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Hide AdIt was real and within days of agreeing to the collaboration, Conor’s video appeared on Man City’s Instagram and TikTok platforms – which have a combined 66million followers. Click here to watch the video.
“It hasn’t sunk in fully how many eyes have seen my work,” Conor said.
“I’m honoured that such a massive platform in City both enjoyed and wanted to share my content.”
Looking ahead to the future, Conor added: “Long term I’d like to find a way of monetising my content to hopefully make it more than just a hobby, but in the meantime I just want to keep working on it and see how far I can take it and just enjoy the ride.”
