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Graphic Design Printing

Fatheads (Big Heads)

Fatheads are very popular at youth and sporting events especially when it comes to award night. They are also known as big heads or heads on a stick. #FatHeads #FatHead #BigHead #BigHeads

Fat heads (Big Heads)

Fatheads are very popular at youth and sporting events especially when it comes to award night. They are also known as big heads or heads on a stick. #FatHeads #FatHead #BigHead #BigHeads
Steve with a Fat ahead of himself

You’ll mostly see these at sporting or youth events, usually at an award night game, like senior night. The loved ones (or fans) would hold these up in support of that person. You might even see them at graduation.

Fatheads are usually bigger than a normal human head. You can see that in my photo of me holding up a fathead of myself. That way they can stand out to that sports player on the field or the court amongst the fan sitting watching the spectator sport.

These are usually printed on a card stock type of paper similar, often a 16 point cover or even 100# cover. If you go with a local print shop usually it will be printed on a digital press also known as a digital printer.

After they are printed, they are hand cut with scissors. So they are roughly cut around the head / face! This is labor intensive depending on the number of fat heads.

Fat heads are very popular at youth and sporting events especially when it comes to award night. They are also known as big heads or heads on a stick. #FatHeads #FatHead #BigHead #BigHeads
Steve is tough cutting his fat head with scissors

Once you have the head cut out you can flip them on the backside and apply craft sticks or paint sticks with hot glue. Usually you’ll need just three of those sticks to help form the spine and give structure support to the fat head. Often you might need more for odd or bigger shapes.

1st stick: Hit glue half

You would glue one of the sticks at the halfway point and put it to where you would have a handle on the fat head. Then you would glue the 2nd stick the whole entire stick and put it on above that stick.

2nd: hot glue whole stick and place above 1st stick

And then you would take the elastic and put glue on the whole thing and overlap the two to add support. I’ve included pictures in his post to show as an example.

3rd: Hot glue whole stick
Place over lapping previously glued sticks

You could expect to pay $5 to $10 or more for each fat head at a local print shop. Costs could vary based on your location and the print shop. Plus cost might be higher for same or next day printing.

Try to use a local small business print shop over a National chain print shop.

I even have asked kids what they think about fat heads including if they think they would be embarrassing. And the kids replied that they do believe they would be embarrassing, however, they do think that they would be rather cool to have done. That was kind of surprising.

Also note high resolution photos work the best! Low resolution rarely work. You can see the pixelation up close, sometimes at a distance, you might not yell. Sometimes!

Never send screenshots or photos of photos. Let the print shop scan in the photo to be used.

Schools are also using fat heads and doing a Teacher Fat Head Dance where the students get a fat head of their teacher and do a dance. I was told one school used googles and glued them to the goggles. I am sure you could use string or elastic too. But, the googles seem like they would stay on the child or performer.

I think you could also do this with famous heads or other people too. Maybe at your church of the pastors, elders and/or leaders.

These have been also called Giant Head Prints.


Fatheads (Fat heads) are typically large, cut-out cardboard or foam board heads that feature the image of a well-known athlete or celebrity. These oversized heads are often seen at sporting events held in stadiums or arenas, and are typically held up by fans to show support for their favorite player or team.

The term “fat head” has become associated with the company Fathead LLC, which produces and sells these types of oversized cutouts. However, similar products may also be referred to as “big heads”, “fan faces”, or simply “cardboard cutouts”.

Fat heads have become a popular way for fans to show their support for their favorite athletes, and are often used as a way to stand out and be noticed in a large crowd. They can be customized with various designs and can feature not only athletes, but also celebrities, politicians, and other notable figures.

Often you can see them on reality shows during the finale as friends and family often have them showing their support for that loved one in the finale.



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Steve is graphic designer who works at a print shop. He has been in graphic design since high school and continued on to get an Associates of Applied Science degree in graphic design too. He has since worked mostly in advertising design for various newspapers and shoppers. He has also worked for a couple sign companies. He currently works at a print shop. Steve has over 30 lifetime years of graphic design.
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