Keep Calm and Carry On
We’ve seen this slogan steadily evolve from an iconic phrase to a public image. Ever since it’s popped into the public eye it has filled me with a sense of unease. It has not comforted me.
Before all the accusations of haterade come, let me clarify my queasiness. First, it’s an ominous and uncredited design. This immediately causes alarm in our heavily authored age. Through the poster I hear Big Brother, who I usually ignore like Helen Keller for better or for worse.
Second, it is historically rooted in WWII England. That time period and place was nerve racking in a very real sense. If one bombing put my nation on edge, imagine what the Blitz must’ve felt like.
Third, the orange red used in the backdrop of this poster is NOT calming. Lastly, I find the use of it questionable. On one hand, there is a LOT of things we should be worried about, and I am not talking about the economy. However, the way it has been transformed from citizen-authored public message to yuppie-design-object, is plain upsetting. It is a very well designed poster. The color choice is spot on, considering that it was a “last case scenario” piece. A reddish orange that causes both alarm and calm brings the right mix of awareness. But I ponder its use in these times. Do we really need to wear it, drink from it, carry it and put it up on our walls? I find this as another sad case of people turning a quick buck by capitalizing on people’s fears. I really think this is a current image that needs to be questioned and I would love to hear what our UK readers think.
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it’s crazy how many variations there are to this poster. All these spin-offs have kind of devalued the original message and what it was originally used for. I noticed the growing trend in these posters and started collecting all the spin-offs I came across…you can see them here.
crystal — your fastidious observation cannot be beat!
I think I originally took to this design because it’s epitomises a very British response to a crisis. Although we’ve lost this a little bit in the 21st Century, it says a lot that the offical advice during a sustained bombing of our capital city was to roll our eyes, tut, and carry on with whatever we were doing.
This poster feels like a distilled form of what I like about my country’s culture – understatement, austerity, hints of irony and repression. I just wish we hadn’t swung so completely the other way in rcent years, into hyperbole and general tabloid hysteria.
My Keep Calm and Carry On odyssey began when I saw photos of the poster online. Since the slogan is so powerful, I wasn’t surprised when I realized it was more well-known that I imagined, but again, did miss the feeling of discovery that accompanied my initial viewing. Then I went to http://www.keepcalmandcarryonusa.com and fell in love all over again. They have products like cufflinks and scarves that are clever applications of the phrase, along with US shipping. I know where I’ll be doing my holiday shopping.
keep calm and carry on and on and on
[...] Keep Calm and Carry On: GraphicHug says “this is a current image that needs to be questioned.” Consumed readers will recall that the design was not popular when it debuted in WWII, and was never widely used. [...]