I’ve recently noticed the 1939 Keep Calm and Carry On poster everywhere these days:
What I didn’t realize is that it’s not really a classic poster:
The poster was initially produced by the Ministry of Information in 1939 during the beginning of World War II. It was intended to be distributed in order to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster. Two-and-a-half million copies were printed, although the poster was distributed only in limited numbers. The designer of the poster is not known.
The poster was third in a series of three. The previous two posters from the series, “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” (800,000 printed) and “Freedom is in Peril” (400,000 printed) were issued and used across the country for motivational purposes, as the Ministry of Information assumed that the events of the first weeks of the war would demoralise the population.
The “Your Courage” poster was much more famous during the war, as it was the first to go up, very large, and was the first of the Ministry of Information’s posters.
In 2000, a copy of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the UK government after 50 years, the image is now in the public domain.
Be seeing you!
I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Retardo.
It’s a catch phrase from The Prisoner — if you haven’t seen it, it’s about a spy imprisoned in a surreal seaside village. Things there seem British, but nothing there is as it seems. When people part, they say “Be seeing you!” It sounds pleasant, but they’re referring to the fact that there are CCTV cameras everywhere (hey, it IS the UK!).
The posters represent a kind of benevolent paternalism that probably seemed comforting in that time and place, but feels creepy and Orwellian to me. That, and the particular quality of Englishness of the visual design and the sentiment, reminded me of The Prisoner.
All of which I totally failed to communicate!
Well played, Retardo. I need to go back and watch more of The Prisoner.