Keep Calm and Carry On Bulletin Board
On Nov. 22, 2009, The New York Times ran an article entitled,"Calming Sign of Troubled Past Appears in Modern Offices." The offices they mention that have Keep Calm and Carry On posters decorating them include those of "David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO North America; Edward Menicheschi, Vanity Fair publisher; Reto Gregori, Bloomberg News chief of staff; Peter Macey, a Wired ad sales director; the headquarters of the branding firm Redscout; and the copy department of Business Week." Join the club. The Keep Calm and Carry On poster looks great unframed but for more finished decorative home decor or office decor, our Keep Calm and Carry On framed poster is bloody good!
Keep Calm and Carry On History
Keep Calm and Carry On sums up in a nutshell what the British did to get through WWII. Interestingly, Churchill's favorite slogan was not Keep Calm and Carry On. It was "Keep Buggering On." Churchill was known for the long hours he put in. Churchill was in his seventies during the war in but his goal was to pack a day and a half's worth of work into a day. He had many secretaries and unlike Roosevelt, Hitler and Stalin who gave orders verbally, Churchill insisted on putting all his orders in writing.
Not exactly a slogan but very much in the Keep Calm and Carry On vein, a famous sign in shops in London after the war was: WE NEVER CLOSED. Everyone from Churchill to the shopkeepers were proud that they were able to Keep Calm and Carry On and win the war in spite of the constant bombing in London.
Keep Calm and Carry On for Decorative Home Decor
Keep Calm and Carry On posters are turning up in the most interesting places: embassies, the office of Britain's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tyra Banks' office. Vanity Fair featured a Keep Calm and Carry On framed poster in Anya Hindmarch's living room. British celebrity fave tabloid OK Magazine snapped Tory Spelling with a framed Keep Calm and Carry On poster too!The noble design and motivating slogan make the Keep Calm and Carry On poster wonderful decorative home decor. A Keep Calm and Carry On print is great for office decor too!
Besides the appealing Keep Calm and Carry On slogan, Keep Calm and Carry On products all have King George VI's crown on them. This British WWII icon makes the slogan a chic decorating accessory. In a recent House Beautifularticle about crowns, like the crowns on Keep Calm and Carry On, posters the magazine points out that wherever they look on the decorating beat, they see crowns these days:
"A Little History About Crowns:"
Is it any wonder that crowns have captivated us for centuries? Just think what they're made of: gold and precious jewels. And who wears them: monarchs and deities. And what they represent: power, glory, triumph, honor, immortality. Can you blame the Duchess of Windsor for adorning her linens, stationery, and handbags with this symbol of sovereign rank, even though the title of queen eluded her?"
Here's what Point Click Home the design blog of Elle Decor Magazine and Metropolitan Home Magazine says about crowns like the one in the Keep Calm and Carry On graphic:"If the word “royal” sounds old, stuffy, and way too traditional, think again. Unusual regal accessories are popping up in top home décor stores, and they’re just as chic and modern as ever."
Keep Calm and Carry On in Today's World
Did you catch the New York Times Style Section about Anglomaniacs on Sunday, October 17th? Count us in! What about Marie Claire's 101 ideas page hailing the "Return of English punk?" It featured our Keep Calm and Carry On poster along with some other British faves like Vivienne Westwood! Be Queen for the Day with British Keep Calm and Carry On accessories for your home or your back
We love the way the spirit and history of the Keep Calm and Carry On has been depicted in popular culture and the Press. Some examples are:
The movie "Bertie and Elizabeth." This film does a wonderful job depicting how much the King and Queen were needed for inspiration during World War II. Bertie (aka King George VI) and Elizabeth took the words "Keep Calm and Carry On" to heart and set a wonderful "Keep Calm and Carry On" example for the people of England during the war. Leading up to the War, the Keep Calm and Carry On poster was designed to advise the public to Keep Calm and Carry On. But as the movie shows, the Royal Family also needed the words "Keep Calm and Carry On." The royal family had marks on their baths to show how far they could fill them in wartime and food was rationed even at the palace.
You can see an original Keep Calm and Carry On poster in Winston Churchill's rooms at the Imperial War Museum.
The rooms are quite interesting and really capture the terror of wartime London with reenactments of Bomb alarms and recordings of broadcasts. No matter how much people followed the Keep Calm and Carry On dictum, it had to be scary.
Keep Calm and Carry On is mentioned in a recent Critical Shopper New York Times article about the shoe sale at Barneys. The author said:
"The sales staff is, for the most part, unusually brave and sporting through this blitz, seemingly guided by an invisible Royal Air Force poster reading: Keep Calm and Carry On." See New York Times Fashion article on Keep Calm and Carry On.
Keep Calm and Carry On turns up in the offices of a lot of British politicians. In a recent UK Independent article about Ben Bradshaw, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the author visits Bradshaw's office and we learn that: A "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster is Blu-Tacked to the back of his door. See: Keep Calm and Carry On at Independent.Co.UK.
Even Italy is in the act. When Berlusconi's latest scandal broke, the UK's The Times newspaper said his strategy was to Keep Calm and Carry On. See news/world/europe Keep Calm and Carry On. Under the headline, A defense strategy of sorts, Keep Calm and Carry On, they write: "Two months after Silvio Berlusconi set off the worst crisis in his political career by attending the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model in a Naples suburb, his team has finally come up with a defense strategy."
Keep Calm References:
Read more about The History of Keep Calm and Carry On at WIKIPEDIA.
History of Keep Calm and Carry On
Keep Calm and Carry On Gallery
New York Times article about Keep Calm and Carry On, July 5th, 2009.
Keep Calm and Carry On poster in the UK Guardian.
According to The New York Times Media & Advertising experts, the coolest offices in town have Keep Calm and Carry On posters on their walls.
| |
|
Bookmark this on Delicious
