As a respons to the crisis called Covid-19, we've launched a positive poster platform "to support lifesavers and to inspire home-stayers". The platform, now home to almost 2000 bright and witty posters contributed from 85 countries, allows anyone to submit, download, print or share them. All to help spread positive messages to get everybody through lockdown and times of crisis. Next to the online platform, we've succeeded getting printed posters to hospitals and public spaces, got covered in local and international newspapers, and got some posters projected on a huge building. Oh, and got it showcased on a 400 * 27 meter (!!!) LED façade in Amsterdam, aka Ziggo Dome.

It all started with a question of our friend, who works at a hospital, to design an uplifting poster for his colleagues. One shower thought and phone call later we decided this project could and should be bigger. Stay Sane, Stay Safe saw the light of day. That very same day a fully functioning platform was up as a positive response to the Corona-crisis. We've got Overdeschreef on board and managed the whole project just with the three of us. Positive energy get's you a long way.

Check the platform here

Our biggest goal, at 1st, was getting some posters to hospitals. Here's some proof of posters actually being up at some of the Dutch hospitals. You can imagine this feels as one of the biggest achievements in the entire project. We're so proud and thankful for Drukkerij Tielen and Stroom Den Haag for making this possible.

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!

On the right; pictures of our collaboration with Exterion. After setting up the SSSS platform, more room for side quests emerged. The last couple of weeks we’ve shared news about projections on buildings, cities and hospitals covered in posters, BUT a short while ago ADCN also reached out to us to help cover the entire country of The Netherlands together with Exterion Media.
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. So, when you are in The Netherlands and you have to run errands like getting gas or groceries, chances are that you come across a fine curation of posters from SSSS!

After a successful first collaboration with SSSS posters covering 275 spots in Breda, Graphic Matters decided to go for a second campaign with two movable displays 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 of course some of our own designs.

Beam me up, Scotty! Putting smiles on faces and buildings. We've joined forces with HOBU Amsterdam, Femke Kempkes and Machteld Aardse, to beam a fine selection of curated posters on a building near Amsterdam UMC hospital to support all of the lifesavers over there. Also brilliantly visible from the local train station.

Running for 3 weeks with 12 different designs per week. Oh, and in case you were wondering, there’s only two of these special projectors in the WORLD.

We've designed some posters especially for the projection, but also featured a lot of other designs from ourself, local designers and others who submitted to the platform.

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!

It all started March 30th. We “only” had 400 designs up on the site when Kapitaal Utrecht slid 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 actually 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. For example, with the money 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.