In every corner of the country and of the world, people are doing great things to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.
And the creative industry is no different.
One creative project reminding us to follow government guidelines in an original way is the #WarOnCovid19 poster campaign, established by James Hodson and Jason Keet.
James and Jason have re-imagined iconic wartime posters with one eye on the current pandemic.
The duo, who work in advertising, have been a creative team for over ten years. They launched their poster campaign last month, and since then it has reached far and wide.
“Everyone else is making banana bread. We’re making posters,” James said.
WaronCovid19.co.uk
The birth of the campaign
Where did James and Jason find the inspiration for these quirky posters?
“We were sitting watching Boris’s big speech, the weekend after everyone thought it was a good idea to go out rather than stay home and protect the health service,” James said.
“And we thought it sounded like the sort of speech you’d hear during wartime. It made us think of the old wartime posters.
“We just started re-making them with a modern, Covid-19 twist. It worked pretty much instantly, and we just kept going.
“We thought that if they made somebody somewhere do something different, they’d be worthwhile.”
WaronCovid19.co.uk
Far and wide
After creating the posters, James and Jason launched a website where people can view the posters, and even download them for free. The unique designs began making their mark online.
“We posted the first batch on social media and it all just went crazy,” James said.
“People called us from New York asking how they could help get them out there.”
WaronCovid19.co.uk
This response led to James and Jason being donated space around London to display the posters for free.
“They’re currently up on about 47 billboard sites around London, and we’re due for some others.
“They’ve been flyposted around Brick Lane and East London. Plus some enterprising folk have taken to printing them out and pinning them to trees in parks.
“We’re getting pictures from all over the place of people finding them in their local parks, from Hackney to Kingston,” James told us.
WaronCovid19.co.uk
Look out for James and Jason’s posters around London and in Manchester.
The duo are planning to make physical prints of the posters available for sale to raise money for the NHS very soon.
You can also check out the posters on Instagram @WaronCovid19 or on their website.
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