Designs of our Times…

I think perhaps like a lot of photographers I can get fixated on documenting, and how things are documented. At the moment we’re all living through the Coronavirus, and although those experiences will vary wildly, we’ll all have been affected one way or another. It seems to me that this has two opposing consequences, the first being that because we’re living through it, this period of history becomes almost meaningless until there’s distance and hindsight. The second is that because of the availability of technology and communication, there’s a huge amount of ‘stuff’ being collected, shared, documented. Again, it probably will take some hindsight to sort the wheat from the chaff.

I find myself trying to think what it would be like if I was reading about this period right now, in the future, having never experienced it. What seems ‘normal’ now (facemasks, staying at home, not seeing family and friends) would seem quite extraordinary. ‘Wow, imagine everything being shut, imagine not being allowed to leave the house, imagine imagine imagine…’ At the minute we’re the frogs in water slowly being heated up and only time will tell how we – and people in the future – will see this time.

One thing I’ve found fascinating is the UK government messaging. I won’t rant about how the virus has been handled in comparison to other countries, because let’s face it, the blog would never end, you’d get anger-fatigue, and we’re all bloody exhausted anyway. So instead, here are some of the official government graphic communications from the past year. All of these can be found as official posts from 10DowningStreet on Twitter.

There was the interesting comparison of spring 2020’s ‘Stay at Home’ message…

…with winter 2020/2021:

And if you watch closely, you can see the moment the government sh*t itself when it went from gentle pastel colours and jolly illustrations in the summer…

to the Very Serious Cases are Rocketing messages of the winter.

And on a slightly jollier, if bizarre note, the time when all their messaging had a retro edge…

I’m keeping these graphics and other little bits and pieces because I think in time, assuming I live through all of this(!) they will seem amazing to me. I’m not a designer, but from a design point of view it’s really interesting that there’s very little cohesion, the designs flip from style to style. I wonder if in years to come, when hopefully this period and its many restrictions are a distant memory, these graphics will become weirdly iconic ‘retro’ designs, like old railway posters. We’ll have to wait and see.