‘Everyday Blues’ 2023 Calendar Holds UK Government to Account
Looking for a calendar that reminds you about more than just who you’re meeting for lunch?
Everyday Blues is a calendar that helps you plan for 2023, whilst holding the UK Tory government to account for their actions in 2022. Made up of daily news headlines from the past year, it tracks the numerous examples of their corruption, cruelty and incompetence and puts the narrative back in control of the people.
Now in its second year, the project was devised by Oriel Wells, a creative at design and branding agency KesselsKramer.
“I came up with the idea at the end of 2020 when I saw despite how awfully they’d dealt with the pandemic, the Tories were already spinning a fairytale where they were the heroes. They’d exploited a global disaster to make themselves and their mates richer and broken just about every law they imposed, but instead of taking any responsibility, they placed the blame on the most marginalised in society. I wanted to do something to tackle the incessant scapegoating and false narratives ever-present in the UK’s dire political landscape.”
As the calendar introduces, this year alone we learnt that Boris Johnson had been partying whilst the country was in lockdown, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng managed to tank the entire UK economy overnight with their ideology-drunk budget, and of course, our third Prime Minister of the year, Rishi Sunak, stepped up to the lectern without even his party’s mandate. It’s more important than ever that we remember how we got to where we are, and who’s actually responsible.
To add some brightness to the bleak state of affairs that was 2022, the calendar was made in collaboration with 12 talented artists, including Stella Murphy, Aude Nasr and The Misfortune Teller. Each artist was asked to choose a month to respond to, taking inspiration from individual headlines or overarching themes. The result is 12 completely unique and amazing artworks in a range of mediums, including 3D illustration, collage, typography and photography.
The calendar was designed by Hannah Carlile, an art director at KesselsKramer, who took inspiration from the calendar’s concept to devise a visual language. Each letter of the typography is cut from newspaper articles and scanned to form a bespoke ‘headline typeface’.
The calendar layout and grid takes reference from newspaper design too.
The calendar exists to raise awareness of the Tory party’s incompetence and heartlessness, but it also has a more immediate impact. 100% of the profits will be split between the 12 important charities put forward by the artists who are already doing the work to make the world a kinder, better place, including Sisters Uncut, Syria Relief and The Trussell Trust.
You can buy a copy and support the project at everydaybluescalendar.com.
