This British World War II poster from 1939 has had an unexpected renaissance of late.Ironically, the poster was never distributed in England during the war, and was only recently discovered in a British shop.
Today it's on posters of all sorts of colors that might have surprised Brits back then (turquoise, hot pink, lime green). On design boards such as Apartment Therapy, it was first beloved and now decried as ubiquitous.
Still, I love it, both sentiment and design. It remains relevant seventy years later.
I particularly like the pink one which says "keep calm and have a cupcake." :)
ReplyDeleteThe original has such a British stiff-upper-lipness about it, a sense that if one must have such messy things as emotions, one would be best served by keeping them to oneself, rather than expressing them in the street and frightening the horses. And that even in the face of hell's own troops, one still has a job to do, and slacking off shall be neither permitted nor excused. (who knew five words and a crown could pack such a punch?)
I'm thinking the typeface is New Johnston/Gill Sans, the one used for the London Underground.
love the blog, btw. :) xoxo evay
HA! Yes. Wow, I wish I'd said it like that....
ReplyDeleteI think I need one of these...
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I am looking forward to the launch of the book. Works by Winston Churchill have timeless appeal. The other day, one of my volunteers was using a notepad with "Keep Calm and Carry On" on it. She didn't know the history behind it. I told her about it and she loves it all the more.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Ingrid