Jefferson Hack, Jon Burgerman and Bob & Roberta Smith release open-source anti-Brexit posters

Date
6 June 2016
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Jon Burgerman

A group of 14 artists and designers including Jefferson Hack, Antony Gormley, Eva Rothschild, Rankin and Jon Burgerman have created posters for the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, the official campaign for Britain remaining in the EU. Axel Scheffler, Dog & Rabbit, Ewan Mitchell, Michael Craig-Martin, Tacita Dean and Rankin have also produced posters, alongside Wolfgang Tillmans, who released a series of artworks in April.
 
The works vary hugely in approach, from Michael Tierney’s painterly depiction of a crowd with placards stating things like “I am not an island,” to Jon Burgerman’s typically tongue-in-cheek “Major FOMO” illustration. Behind Jon’s poster, however, is a serious message. “Being able to openly travel around Europe and meet and even collaborate with a host of companies, makers and artists not only transformed my practice but also my life,” he says. “The ease and openness of these collaborations, allowing for the sharing of ideas, tools, products and work across so many countries and cultures is not possible anywhere else in the world. We would be a lot poorer culturally (and likely financially) without it.”

Jefferson Hack and Ferdinando Verderi collaborated on two posters, using two phrases from the title of their book We Can’t Do This Alone: Jefferson Hack the System, giving the phrases new meaning. 

Rankin has produced a simple poster, featuring a photograph of a silk heart in tatters and just a “remain” box ticked. Ewan Mitchell’s poster displays the poignant phrase, “Be wary of easy answers to complex problems.” 

Bob & Roberta Smith, who is speaking at Here 2016 this Friday, said of his poster, “The EU has its inspiration in the post war desire for peace. It is an agent in creating peace and stability. It benefits business and builds the economic base for prosperity but beyond that it is fundamentally about peace. We have only got each other, let’s work together.”

The posters are free to download here.

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Bob & Roberta Smith

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Michael Tierney

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Jefferson Hack and Ferdinando Verderi

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Antony Gormley

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Ewan Mitchell

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Eva Rothschild

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Rankin

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Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output across work, news and features. She was previously It’s Nice That's news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

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