I have come across these posters for years now, and most recently on the blog called Made By Girl ... and I figured it had to have some sort of history. So I did what any good 21st century researcher would do and I looked it up on Wikipedia! In short, the poster was created by the British Government in 1939 at the beginning of World War II, tp raise the moral of the British public in case of an invasion. The poster was "rediscovered" in 2000, and since then, has been re-issued by a number of private sector companies. The designer of the poster is unknown. The poster was actually the third in a series of three, the first two being:
I feel like the "KEEP CALM" story continues to be quite relevant. Refreshing, nastalgic, but still a very powerful message today more than ever. What I found very interesting was that Bristish copywrites on written material expire after 50 years - so the crown and the content fell into public domain and this happy little couple that owned a tiny bookstore bought a box of crap from an auction, these posters were in it, and they were able to legally reprint - nearly 60 years later - and the rest is literally history! Now it is everywhere from coffee mugs, t-shirts, etc. and I wonder where the original creator is? Dang shame she didn't get credit! :)
I am really digging these variations, though! My fav is the "SHUT UP AND DANCE!"
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"Get excited and Make Things." I love that one. Love love that one. Almost as awesome as a poster up in my friend's house" Make Your Own Shit!"
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