EN: If you ever visited United Kingdom, London in particular, you’ve probably seen variants and clones of image like the one above all over the place. T-shirts, mugs, coasters, posters, the thing has gone viral. It seems that the souvenirs in London are equally divided between Royal Family, London City monuments, Banksy graffitti and „Keep Calm and…” variants. Nice, but what does it mean, and where does it come from? During my stay in London for the Olympics, I found out a little bit about the history of this poster, and it’s quite fascinating.
In 1939, on the eve of WWII, a British governmental department „The Ministry of Information“ ordered the production of public reassurance posters intended to raise the morale of the British public in the aftermath of widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities.
The first to be displayed was „Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory“ which appeared everywhere, on billboards, the sides of buildings, train stations, buses, the London underground, and so on. Shortly after, a second design of the posters was distributed and put up which carried the phrase „Freedom Is In Peril, Defend It With All Your Might“.
The third one, with the phrase „Keep Calm and Carry On” was never officially put on public display, and almost all the copies were destroyed in the post-war years.
In 2000, Stuart Manley, of Barter Books Ltd. in Northumberland, was sorting through a box of used books bought at auction when he uncovered one of the original "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters. He framed it and hung it up by the cash register. It attracted so much interest that Manley began to produce and sell copies, other companies followed, and the design rapidly began to be used as one of the most popular themes for a wide range of products.
Just type in Google, eBay or any other search engine „Keep Calm and”, and watch the thousands of results in output. Hundreds of pages about this exist on the internet, some of which are the detailed history of „Keep Calm” poster (with a video!), and some sites where you can make your own „Keep Calm” posters, or some other merchandise.
The cache is placed just meters from the British Embassy in Croatia (seemed appropriate), so although the hedge protects you from the guard’s view, please do not act suspiciously.
HR: Ako ste ikada posjetili Veliku Britaniju, ili konkretnije, London, vjerojatno ste posvuda vidjeli varijante i klonove slike na vrhu ovog listinga. Majice, šalice, podmetači, plakati, stvar se potpuno otela kontroli. Čini mi se da su suveniri u Londonu jednoliko podijeljeni između kraljevske obitelji, londonskih atrakcija, Banksy-jevih grafita i "Keep Calm and ... " varijanti. Lijepo, ali što to znači, i odakle to dolazi? Za vrijeme mog boravka u Londonu tijekom Olimpijskih igara, saznao sam malo više o povijesti ovog plakata, prilično fascinantna priča.
Godine 1939, uoči Drugog svjetskog rata, „Ministarstvo informacija“ britanske vlade je naručilo izradu plakata namijenjenih za dizanje morala britanske javnosti nakon predviđenih masovnih zračnih napada na velike gradove. Na prvom koji se pojavio pisalo je „Vaša hrabrost, vaša vedrina, vaša odvažnost, će nam donijeti pobjedu”. Bilo ga je posvuda, na oglasnim mjestima, zgradama, željezničkim stanicama, autobusima, podzemnim željeznicama, i tako dalje. Ubrzo zatim, distribiuiran je i drugi plakat, koji je glasio „Sloboda je u opasnosti, branite je svim snagama”.
Treći, s natpisom "Budite smireni i nastavite dalje" nije nikada službeno izložen, a gotovo sve štampane kopije su uništene u poslijeratnim godinama.
2000-e godine, Stuart Manley iz Barter Books Ltd. u Northumberlandu, je sortirao kutiju rabljenih knjiga kupljene na aukciji, kad je otkrilo jedan od originalnih "Keep Calm and Carry On" plakata. Učinio mu se zgodnim, te ga je uokvirio i objesio ga na blagajnu svoje knjižare. Nakon što je plakat privukao ogromnu pažnju, Manley je počeo proizvoditi i prodavati kopije, u čemu ga slijede i ostale tvrtke, pa se dizajn ubrzano počinje koristiti kao jedna od najpopularnijih tema za široku paletu proizvoda. Dovoljno je upisati u Google, eBay ili bilo koju drugu tražilicu "Keep Calm and", da vidite tisuće različitih rezultata.
Stotine stranica postoje na internetu o ovome, neke od kojih su detaljna povijest "Keep Calm" plakata (uz video! ), a neke web stranice gdje se može napraviti svoj vlastiti "Keep Calm" plakat ili dizajnirati ili kupiti različiti merchandise.
Cache je postavljen samo nekoliko desetaka metara od britanskog veleposlanstva u Hrvatskoj (činilo mi se prikladnim), tako da iako ste živicom zaštićeni od stražarevog pogleda, molimo vas da se ne držite i ne postupate sumnjivo.
: Please, attach in your log the “Keep Calm…” image which you like the most.
Molim vas da u logu dodate jednu “Keep Calm…” sliku koja vam se najviše sviđa.