Dezeen Magazine

Christopher Kane spreads a message of hope

Vivviene Westwood and Christopher Kane create hopeful coronavirus posters

Artists and designers including Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Kane and Wolfgang Tillmans have created protest-style posters about coronavirus for Dazed Media.

As part of its #AloneTogether campaign, Dazed Media asked creatives to design posters that respond to the changes brought about by the pandemic and call for a better future. Graffiti artist 3D, fashion designer Katharine Hamnett and director Margot Bowman have also contributed poster designs.

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Photographer and director Jonas Lindstroem's poster puts dreams on a front page

"Part warning, hope and inspiration, these posters are beacons for future action and connection," said Dazed Media co-founder Jefferson Hack.

"There is a long history of political protest and creative resistance being expressed through poster design, illustration and graphic art," he added.

"Whether they are posters intended for the street or for the screen this inspiring collection gives voice to artists' social, political and personal reflections."

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood calls for less consumerism

Westwood, who has previously called to ban land ownership and protested climate change at her catwalk shows, also designed a poster for the #AloneTogether campaign.

Executed in her signature punk style, the slogan "Buy less, chose it well, make it last" is splashed in acid-yellow block letters on a hot pink background.

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Graffiti artist 3D used simple symbols for his poster

Fashion designer Kane put the words "Be open to the joy you deserve" in a white sans serif font on a black background.

3D, also known as Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, made a poster with no words, just a universal symbol for a hand with a plus sign on the palm.

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Wolfgang Tillmans encourages people to buy newspapers and magazines

Photographer Tillmans' poster features a collage of photos of printing presses with the words "to keep the free press free pay for it" scrawled across it. Tillmans recently created a special edition memorial cover for the Evening Standard magazine and an anti-Brexit poster.

Fashion designer Hamnett, who is well known for her political slogan T-shirts, made a simple black-and-white poster that says simply: "Save our future".

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Margot Bowman's nudes sit alone but together in isolation

An illustration by Bowman depicts four nude figures, interlocking yet isolated, looking into their mobile phones. The ambiguous image could be one of online connection or loneliness in lockdown.

Artist and model Lotte Anderson took a self portrait with a devil's fork and a teddy for her poster, surrounding herself with abstract slogans calling for a rent strike and listing lockdown essentials such as weed, Juul Pods and chocolate.

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Kris Andrew Small created a colourful poster for #AloneTogether

Illustrator and designer Kris Andrew Small's poster says "Get out from the inside" in the artist's signature collage of dynamic type against technicolour backgrounds.

Artist and writer Wilson Oryema repeated the phrase "Ladies and gentleman, we are floating in space", the title of a 1997 psychedelic rock album, in white and black letters on a tomato-red backdrop

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
What emotional state has the pandemic left us in, asks Charles Jeffery

Fashion designer Charles Jeffery asks "How does it make you feel?" over a screaming, grinning face wearing dramatic makeup reflected in a broken mirror.

Climate activist group Extinction Rebellion produced a poster with a large letter A that is weeping over a dead butterfly. Illustrator Polly Nor drew a figure in bed hugging a tree next to a quote by Yrsa Daley-Ward.

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Peter Kennard's anti-war artwork has been revamped for the current crisis

Pictures of the Earth from space are a recurring theme. Photographer and director Jonas Linstroem put the world on a mockup of a newspaper front page, and sculptor William Farr created an Earth from flowers.

Political artist Peter Kennard and anarchist artist Jamie Reid reworked Kennard's piece Disarm Now! depicting nuclear weapons being broken in half to include the words "Afterwards the rumour is another world is possible".

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Flower sculptor William Farr produced a vision of a new Eden

Several of the artists who took part in the #AloneTogether campaign have also donated signed artworks to a charity auction being held to raise money for Barts Health NHS Trust.

Many major magazines have put coronavirus on the front cover to mark the crisis, and last month graphic designers created a series of illustrations to help share helpful advice during the pandemic.

More images

Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Wilson Oryema
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Katherine Hamnet
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Extinction Rebellion
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Sandy kim
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Boot Boys Biz
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Polly Nor
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Jefferson Hack in collaboration with David Wise at Forthcoming Studio
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Stephanie Specht
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Samuel Ross
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
MM Paris
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Matty Bovan
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Lotte Andersen
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Kingsley Ifill
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Julian Klincewicz
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Eric Lawrence
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Fai Khadra
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Gaika
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
George Rouy
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
GMBH
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Hank Willis Thomas
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
James Massiah
Dazed Media coronavirus poster campaign
Jamie Reid and Jack Mills