In response to the pandemic called COVID-19, we've launched a positive poster platform together with our partner in crime overdeschreef. The platform, now home to almost 2000 bright and witty posters contributed by designers from over 83 countries, allows anyone to submit, download, print or share posters to "support lifesavers and to inspire home-stayers".

It all started March 22nd with a question from our friend, who works at a hospital, to design an uplifting poster for his colleagues. One shower thought and a phone call later, we decided this project could and should be bigger. Stay Sane, Stay Safe (SSSS) saw the light of day.
That very same day a fully functioning platform was up and running as a positive response to the global corona crisis. That same Sunday we also got overdeschreef on board and the three of us managed the whole project by ourselves. Fully pro bono. And boy we can tell you that positive energy can get you pretty damn far!

One of the goals was to help spread positive messages to get everybody through lockdown safely with a smile. Besides setting up the online platform, we've also succeeded in getting posters to Dutch hospitals and displaying posters in the public space.
We got covered by local and international news outlets, but we also managed to get 36 posters projected on a huge building in Amsterdam in a span of three weeks. Oh, and some posters also got showcased on a humongous 400 * 27 meter (!!!) LED façade in Amsterdam, colloquially known as the Ziggo Dome.
Obviously, we couldn’t have done this without some tremendous help of others. Eternal karma for their souls.

Check the platform here

Of all things we’ve had in mind, our biggest goal (at first) was sending some posters to hospitals in The Netherlands. You’ve already read some humble bragging above, so here’s some photographical proof of posters actually being up at some of the hospitals.
You can imagine that this feels as one of the biggest achievements in the entire project. We're more than thankful for Drukkerij Tielen and Stroom Den Haag for making this possible. You guys have made us SO proud!

Pictures are taken in Amphia Breda and UMC Utrecht! Unknown nurse remains unknown, but the cheerful tatted up one is the amazing Ruben van Schaik. Thank you so much to both of you for sending us some pics in these crazy, busy times!

Pictures are taken in Amphia Breda and UMC Utrecht! Unknown nurse remains unknown, but the cheerful tatted up one is the amazing Ruben van Schaik. Thank you so much to both of you for sending us some pics in these crazy, busy times!

After setting up the SSSS platform, more room for side quests emerged. On the right side you will find some pictures of our collaboration with Exterion Media. ADCN played matchmaker in this cool collab, BTW.
Exterion owns a shit ton of digital advertising pillars and offered to loop 16 posters (in a set of 4x4) on 2500 of those pillars throughout The Netherlands.
So, when you are in town and you have to run errands like getting gas, grass or groceries, chances are that you come across a fine curation of posters from SSSS! And if you don’t have to run errands, just stay indoors, okay? Pinky promise?

After a successful first SSSS collaboration with Graphic Matters (normally a bi-annual graphic design festival in Breda, NL) covering 275 spots in Breda with SSSS posters, GM decided to go for a second campaign with two movable exhibitions containing 23 posters each.

Selected posters are designed by: Olivier van Zummeren, Pony Design Club, Stas Tuchinsky, Sebastian Pren, Perry Rowe, Steve Gavan, Studio Noord Oost, Thomas & Jurgen, Cachetejack, Humo Estudio, Filippos Fragkogiannis, Samantha Wilkinson, Yani Huygh, Panpan Cucul, Aline Meier, Gorilla, Mirko Ilic, Touchy Studios, Maryse El Gawly, FindYourLogo, Guido de Boer, Goldberg Cohen, Robert Canak, Max Valcheux, Kris Andrew Small, Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, Andrzej Wieteszka, Estelle Bizet, Amélie Tingsnäs, Stefan van den Heuvel, Claudia Pazzaglia, Alessio Zoni, Qian Qian, Things Dre Makes, Studio de Ronners, Mao Yamamoto, MaartjeMerel.

And not to forget some of our own designs.

We’re not just putting smiles on faces, we’ve also put smiles on buildings! For this collab we joined forces with HOBU Amsterdam, Femke Kempkes and Machteld Aardse, to beam a fine selection of curated posters, running for 3 weeks straight with 12 different designs per week, on a building near Amsterdam UMC hospital to support all of the lifesavers over there working their butts off. The projection was even better visible from the local train station. Pretty damn neat, in our humble opinion.

We projected designs from local artists, some of ourselves and a shit ton of submissions from SSSS. After the second run, we received the projection blueprint which allowed us to design some posters specially for the projection.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, there’s only two of these special projectors in the WORLD. Beam me up, Scotty!

Collaboration with Graphic Matters. “Stay safe, take care of each other, keep your distance, call your grandparents”, all frequently heard comments lately. Residents of Breda can now also find them on the street. The city has been covered in hundreds of colourful posters as a reaction to the corona crisis. In your neighbourhood too! Have you spotted them yet?

The posters are part of the Stay Sane, Stay Safe project, initiated by design studio Lennarts & De Bruijn and lettering agency Overdeschreef from The Hague. Via the website www.stay-sane-stay-safe.com, they called for designers worldwide to create posters. The posters are offered as free downloads for anyone that wants to support healthcare workers and fellow human beings. For example, by hanging a poster in front of the window. So far over a 1000 designers from 73 countries have designed a poster for the project.

The Stay Sane, Stay Safe project perfectly fits our ambition to have everyone stop and think about the importance of visual culture in our society, and to reach as many people as possible with current and relatable content. We believe posters belong on the street, and so a collaboration was born. We selected 12 designs that depict the current crisis in a striking way and had them spread across the city in 275 Centercom poster frames.

Dennis Elbers, creative director of Graphic Matters: “During these unusual times, creativity is appreciated more than ever – the world longs for inventive and creative manifestations. We’re contributing by covering Breda in these positive posters. With this project, we’re transforming the entire city into a massive public service announcement. If we all stick to these measures, it will all be okay.”

Amongst this process, Lennarts and de Bruijn explain there are three main goals of the project, first led by a simple mission to receive, create and share “uplifting and thankful messages to our care takers, lifesavers and hospitals”. But within these messages of designed positivity are also direct instructions of how to navigate the pandemic situation we each need to respond to individually too: “To educate others to take this whole thing more seriously,” adds the studio. “To stay indoors as much as possible, but also to keep smiling.” The final aim is to help the creative sector more specially, offering use of a platform where individuals can spread their work. “It’s a tough time for creatives also,” they continue, “this is a good way to build your portfolio – and make a difference in the meantime.”

Full article on It's Nice That <3

Since we're still doing this project pro bono, we heavily rely on the help of others. Huge shout-out and eternal gratitude to:
Stroom Den Haag, Drukkerij Tielen, Kapitaal Utrecht, The Brand Identity, It's Nice That, Graphic Matters, Exterion, WeTransfer, Volkskrant (Magazine), NOS Journaal, The Observer (The Guardian), PIP Den Haag, Creative Boom, HOBU Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome.

Three layers of silky smooth silkscreen goodness! Designed by Kris Andrew Small, printed by the amazing Kapitaal Utrecht. We will get through this together!

This sexy little collab started March 30th. We “only” had 400 designs up on the site when Kapitaal Utrecht slid right into our DMs. Ramon and Carlien really wanted to help us out and offered to silk screen print three layers of a selected design. There were too many designs to pick from, but Kapitaal had been meaning to work together with Australian designer Kris Andrew Small for a while already.

And luckily, Kris had sent in a beautiful design just a couple of days before Kapitaal reached out to us. So, 1 + 1 = 2 and everything came together quite smoothly. Which pretty much makes us graphic design cupido’s, haha.

Since all of this is pro bono, including Kapitaal and Kris’s efforts, it makes this side-quest within SSSS even more special. As you can see Kris and Kapitaal happily approved to sell these beauties! And just so you know, everything we earn from selling these posters flows right back into the project. 100%. This allows us to keep this train going. With the dough we make from these bad-boys, we can get more prints that we can send to hospitals, nursing homes and other caretaking facilities.

On display in Belgium (Hasselt) as part of Wall Street (an open air 24/7 gallery) by @alleygallery 🖤💛❤️The posters on view are designed by Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn, Vincent Bogers, Studio Noordoost and Alley design studio.