made by TrishM: keep calm!

I have been in love with the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters that have been floating around the past couple of years. Even more so variations on the theme.

Instead of looking lustfully at them and cursing the price of many of them, I decided to make my own versions.

The original poster is now in the public domain and is no longer covered by copyright. Thus the many multiple variations on the original.

For those who have wondered where on earth the original poster came from, take a look at http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/kc_history.php

here's an excerpt:

"In the Spring of 1939, with war against Germany all but inevitable, the British Government's Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propaganda posters to be distributed throughout the country at the onset of hostilities. It was feared that in the early months of the war Britain would be subjected to gas attacks, heavy bombing raids and even invasion. The posters were intended to offer the public reassurance in the dark days which lay ahead.

The posters were required to be uniform in style and were to feature a 'special and handsome' typeface making them difficult for the enemy to counterfeit. The intent of the poster was to convey a message from the King to his people, to assure them that 'all necessary measures to defend the nation were being taken', and to stress an 'attitude of mind' rather than a specific aim. On the eve of a war which Britain was ill-equipped to fight, it was not possible to know what the nation's future aims and objectives would be.

At the end of August 1939 three designs went into production with an overall print budget of £20,600 for five million posters. The first poster, of which over a million were printed, carried a slogan suggested by a civil servant named Waterfield. Using the crowns of George VI as the only graphic device, the stark red and white poster read 'Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory'. A similar poster, of which around 600,000 were issued, carried the slogan 'Freedom is in Peril'. But the third design, of which over 2.5 million posters were printed, simply read 'Keep Calm and Carry On'."

Here are some of my variations to the original: