Sorry for shouting, but I wanted to evoke this poster:
A friend shared it recently and it instantly fixed itself into my awareness. It is a motivational poster from World War II, designed and produced by the Ministry of Information. I think it gains its force from every component being so perfectly balanced. The words express one of the best sides of the English temperament (I suspect the Scottish version would be, "Grouse but keep slogging"). The calmness of the words is stark against the energetic scarlet (I think; if it is a different color let me know). The font has a simple directness that was chosen to be hard to copy. At least one fan cares about the font enough to make a variant that speaks to it:
There is a highly diverse collection on this theme in a Flickr collection. Drawing on this collection, the role of color is very clear:
This color variant was made after the Philippine floods. I'm sure it speaks to folks familiar with the Philippine flag, but less so perhaps to others.
Folks have translated the sentiment into words closer to their style:
That most English of wizards, Harry Potter is represented:
Some folks have repurposed the design to their own priorities:
This quote from Lincoln is a moving one, but I wonder how well it would work as a poster. Perhaps it also says something about the chattiness of Americans?
Naturally there are cynical and mocking variants:
There is one artist who spans the gamut of experience:
And an understandable conclusion (from a designer responsible for a number of designs):
I especially like the different direction taken by creative people:
An irony is that the poster was hardly seen until fifty years after it was printed. Although two others were used in the early days of WWII, this one was meant for use after a German invasion. Since there was no invasion the posters were stored away and eventually forgotten. Seeing it helps me remember that people have endured far worse than what challenges me now, and that the very worst may not even happen.
In the meantime, I've made the original my screensaver on my iPod, so I get frequent reminders to keep calm and carry on. And if it has applications to other contexts, isn't that the power of art?