Keep calm and poster on

Described as “the greatest motivational poster ever” by the Beeb, the Keep Calm poster has appeared everywhere from the hallowed pages of design magazines to being sandwiched between the somewhat grimier giveaway pages of the Daily Mail.

It’s been spotted in struggling shops’ windows, living rooms throughout the land and even government offices. (According to the Guardian this includes “the Lord Chamberlain’s Office at Buckingham Palace, the prime minister’s strategy unit at No 10, the Serious Fraud Office, the US embassy in Belgium, the vice chancellor of Cambridge University, the Emergency Planning Office at Nottingham council and the officers’ mess in Basra”.)

As if that wasn’t enough, the slogan has turned up on everything from t-shirts and bags to mugs and hallway rugs. Perhaps worse (or better we can’t quite decide) is the range of spoof slogan posters that have appeared in its wake.

So, here at The Gate, we think it’s time for some new motivational, positive thinking posters. And these our favourites to live your life by… all far more fun than ‘keeping calm and carrying on’ we feel.

1. from Keep Calm Gallery 2. from For Keeps 3 & 4. via Home Shopping Spy 5, 8 & 11 from Concrete Hermit 6 & 7. from Seb Lester 9. from Pedlars 10. from Hijirik 12. from MaryKateMcDevitt 13. from Studio Mela

About the author

Zoë Martin is the Senior Copywriter for The Gate in Edinburgh. She joined The Gate in 2004, having previously worked for Channel 4 and in Los Angeles.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Influences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.