Keep calm; it’s only a poster (or is it?).
In the spring of 1939, as England was staring at imminent war with Germany, somebody in the dark rooms of the ministry of information was working away at the design of 3 posters that were meant to help the masses in the bleak times ahead. The posters said ‘your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory’ and ‘freedom is in peril’, the third one (‘keep calm and carry on’) was kept in the waiting just in case Germany invaded England. As we all know this never happened and the poster never saw the light of day. Fast-forward 50 years, in an old-Victorian-station-turned-bookshop in the English northeast, a bookseller and his wife open up a box of old books bought at an auction. What they find, it’s only a poster, but it will change their lives forever. In fact the clean, ageless type and the message displayed struck a chord with the bookseller’s wife who decided to frame the poster and hang it by the till. From then onwards, like a war siren, crying from faraway times, the poster has been talking to all those who cared to listen. Its message has crossed time and space to become an icon of these modern times. Some might wonder how is it possible that something designed for such dire straits, 50 years ago, has become so popular and relevant today. It might be that in this age fascinated by design and type, the poster has offered a timeless, yet simple message capable to talk to the masses, it might be the era we live now is uncertain and dark, just like the one the poster was designed for, or it might be that the whole story rings like something out of a movie (the ministry of information, the bookseller, the poster). The point is that from a single poster, a whole industry has spawn out, so much so, that at the moment a copyrights war rages on, trying to establish who owns the rights to the poster. Time might have gone by but all the elements are still there, the bleak times ahead, the minimalistic design, the (copyrights) war. History sometimes has a funny way of playing with people; it spared the poster to the English public 50 years ago, only to make it more relevant today. Now I keep on hearing that print is dead, well if that’s the case, then long live the print.
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