Keeping Calm and Saving Money

This poster was created in 1939 in Great Britain and never publicly displayed and it only resurfaced by chance in 2000. Today we see the now iconic poster design and typeface used in all sorts of parodies and advertisements.

I saw the design used in an ING mailing at RSP time. (RSPs are the Canadian personal Retirement Savings Plans.) Quite a clever use of the both the concept and the original wording, particularly in relation to income tax time, when hardly anyone can "keep calm".

As has been observed by a few people, the hand-drawn font used owes a debt to both the London Underground font, and Gill Sans (One of my favourite fonts.)

A UK-based type house, K-Type, has created a full font from the meagre examples available on the three posters that were part of the series. If can be downloaded for free for individual use. (http://www.k-type.com/?p=2199)

For a history of the rediscover of the poster this video is quite informative. (http://devour.com/video/keep-calm-and-carry-on/) Or you could have a look at the website of the bookstore where the poster was rediscovered. (http://www.barterbooks.co.uk)

Source for poster image: http://con.ca/news/5919