FOR LIFESAVERS

    FOR HOME-STAYERS

FOR LIFESAVERS

Times are tough, show some love. Here’s what to do. Pick a couple of bad boys below. Print them out and hang them in your window (or send them to your local hospital, doctor’s office or nursing home) to show those hard-working lifesavers some love and appreciation. We need them to stay happy, healthy and more importantly sane.

No printer? No problem! There are also files for you to share on your socials.

Let’s support all of our medical staff and caretakers while remaining safely inside. You can do this!

WE NEED MORE POSTERS FOR THESE SUPERHEROES!!!

FOR HOME-STAYERS

What if we told you that you could save lives staying inside watching Netflix and eating pizza’s? Let’s be honest. It’s actually a dream coming true for most of us. It’s kind of like the grown-up version of getting a letter to Hogwarts. We just wished it would’ve been under different circumstances. 

Yet, you can still make a difference and flatten that curve. Be the naysayer. Be a lifesaver.

Download these posters to encourage others to become a remote hero too. Share them on a social media of your liking or print ‘em out and stick ‘em on your window.

Oh, and don’t forget to stay the fuck inside.

About?
Stay Sane, Stay Safe saw the light of day on March 22nd after a friend, who works at a hospital, asked if we had an uplifting poster laying around for his colleagues. We didn’t, but could definitely have designed one for him.

In the meantime, Max (Lennarts) had a literal shower thought and afterwards immediately called his partner Menno (de Bruijn) to discuss that this could and should be bigger. That same day a website was launched called Stay Sane, Stay Safe. At that time, the website was still empty, so Menno called another friend, Ronald (de Leeuw), to come up with some texts to fill it up.

Max and Menno form the ultra-multidisciplinary design duo Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn, based in The Hague. Ronald has his own progressive text and communication bureau called overdeschreef.
The three of us liked working together so much, that we have been able to turn SSSS in a fully operating pro bono poster platform with over 1700 designs by creatives from over 82 countries.

BUT, this isn’t actually just about us, it’s also about you.

It’s about everyone of us.

We all feel helpless in this (first-world) madness.

Imagine what it’s like for people less fortuned than us.

Yes, we’ve got a shortage of beds, but we still have beds.

That’s why you have to stay inside.

Follow your heart, but use your head.

We wanted to share the right message and spread some love to the lifesavers out there.

At the moment we’re working around the clock to make a selection of beautiful posters that we can print and send to hospitals in the area (Netherlands).

This has been a project of

Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn + overdeschreef

With special thanks to Stroom Den Haag, Drukkerij Tielen, Kapitaal Utrecht, Graphic Matters, and hopefully many more to come.

In case you'd like to join this epos, or if you have anything else you want to share with us, holler at us via info@stay-sane-stay-safe.com

Hold up!

Did you know you’ve got some superpowers?

You know, the ones that can save lives?
 You’ve got ‘em!
How do we know?

Well, we’ve heard that you’re a more than decent designer. And we’re in dire need of your aid to help save people from themselves in these crazy times called COVID-19 a.k.a. the corona virus.
People need to stay the fuck home so our lifesavers can do what they do best: saving lives.

This means that it’s our job as visual communication gurus to inspire people to stay at bay.
And that’s where you’ll come into play.

We want you to design posters to:
1 – Keep our lifesavers sane. Think happy and uplifting.
2 – Inspire the general population to stay safely inside

We’d like to call this campaign: STAY SANE, STAY SAFE.

Of course, your handle will always be mentioned on the poster, website and social media.
For us creatives these are also tough times, so this is the perfect way to save multiple lives with one design.

Download the templates here!

And submit your effort on the submission page
Eternal karma for your soul,

Team Stay Sane Stay Safe

p.s. if you have anything you want to ask or share > info@stay-sane-stay-safe.com

Why isn’t my design up, yet? / Why was it taken down?
Well, maybe it actually was up for a brief period of time. We don’t curate much, because we’re not the ones who decide what’s pretty design or not, but we do curate on a great message that is well put together visually. Also, we don't need any of that racist or other divisive stuff! So, if your design got taken down, bummer, but definitely go back to the drawing board. As you can imagine we can't comment on all of your designs why they got taken down. Deal with it and don’t forget to kill your darlings!

Wait, what does that red SICK label mean?
SICK is short for staff pick. It’s also a word with a negative connotation initially, but flipped into something great, like savage. Classy. Bougie. Ratchet. It’s also kind of ironic to use sick on a positive poster platform regarding COVID-19, don’t you think? Anyway, in this case it means that these are the designs that we absolutely love at the moment. We try to change them up every now and then. We do this to showcase what we would love to see contentwise. A qualitative inspiration for those who’d like to submit, but also to lure people in further who visit the platform for the first time. Yes, we’re sneaky little fuckers.

Hold up, what are you going to do with my work? I don’t see anything about rights or whatsoever.
Calm down, Erin Brockovich! All of your works are still yours, we don’t temper with that shit. There’s a reason why we link back to you and give credits on the posters as well. Our third goal of this entire project was to give you something to do besides Animal Crossing plus to help you maybe get a gig or two out of it.
What we might do is share your poster on social, send it to media outlets or get it printed for public space. If it’s something big or if we need you to change something about your poster, we’ll let you know! Also, we will never sell prints of your poster without your consent. We value transparency and trust in this community!
    Creative Boommmm feature

    💥BOOOMMM💥

    After featuring the graphic matters collaboration in Breda already, on the 14th of April, Creative Boom decided to update their readers with a thorough article on SSSS! 👀

    It got us thinking... this might be the first feature at this point, which covers the full scope of the project, context and collaborations we've been doing over the last couple of months! Written by Katy Cown, Founder & Editor of Creative Boom. 👀

    Creative Boom is a UK-based online magazine and podcast, dedicated to artists, designers, illustrators, photographers and anyone working in visual arts and communications.

    Read the full article here👀

    Great news!

    🤫 We were told to shut up about it for a bit, but now the embargo has lifted (and some of you may have already read it anyways) we’re very proud to say that we got featured by The Guardian! 💄 And of course, we wouldn’t be SSSS without featuring some of your works as well. Swipe through this carousel faster than a horny guy in quarantine to see if yours got selected!

    💥 This feature is one hell of a breakthrough for us, media-wise, and apparently the article even got printed in The Observer yesterday. Or maybe even in The Guardian of Saturday. We don’t know for sure. It stinks, because we couldn’t find a single Observer or Guardian in The Hague, which is weird because our city is chock-full of expats!

    📰 So, if you’ve got a Guardian or Observer from this weekend laying around please find the article and send us some pics or, if you want some eternal karma, send it over to us. We’ll cover the shipping!

    PIP PIP Hooray

    🔥 Last Saturday we were invited to PIP Den Haag's 'De Grote Quarantaine Show (Livestream)'. We're not even going to translate that, because you're smart enough to figure it out by yourself :) And it's safe to say that it was LIT! Literally! 🔥

    We can't stress enough how important PIP is for helping the local creative and underground communities in The Hague since 2007. They're well known for their sick parties, expositions, theatre, workshops and their overall love for culture. 🔥

    🔥🔥 In these weird times, PIP has come up with a livestream in which all of the above is still guaranteed + a shit ton of other fun.
    Including giving a voice to SSSS! 🔥

    We got the chance to talk a bit about the project and we did a live art experiment, in which we were in last minute need of cardboard, duct-tape and whole lot of gasoline. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

    🔥You can still watch it, of course, via PIP's Facebook page!

    🔥The cool thing; were going to make a sick PIP Den Haag Riso print from the livestream stills of the burning flames. It might take a while, but we'll try to have them up in the shop ASAP. In the meantime we still have some of the SSSS x KRIS x KAPITAAL prints left. So, go and get you some! 🔥

    Moving museum with GM

    😱SSSS x GRAPHIC MATTERS part two. Dos. Deux. 2. Twee. 😱

    New locations for the moving museum in Breda. After a successful first collab with SSSS posters covering 275 spots in Breda, @graphicmatters decided to go for a second campaign with two movable displays containing 23 posters each. 🙌🏻 They look fucking rad and it took a lot of physical labour to pull this one off, sick! The upcoming weeks the two displays will move around different areas in Breda. 🦋 ❤️

    Pictures by team SSSS 📸

    Run errands get treats

    🚘Now we’ve set-up the SSSS platform just like we wanted, more room for side quests emerges. 🚘

    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. SICK!

    🤩🤩🤩 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!

    We've got a bunch of photos from Exterion, but if you spot a loop in the wild, don’t hesitate and share it with us! Curious if your design got selected? Spin through this caroussel like a fat kid on cake!

    Bringing the museum to you with GM

    🚨 SSSS x GRAPHIC MATTERS part two. Dos. Deux. 2. Twee. 🚨

    After a successful first collab 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. Museums are closed 'til June 1st, so

    🙌🏻 Anyways, the displays look fucking rad and it took a lot of physical labour to pull this one off, sick! The upcoming weeks the two displays will move around different areas in Breda.

    🦋 Last week’s spot was on the corner of Argusvlinder / Levenspad. Try pronouncing argusvlinder without sounding like you’re choking!

    Lekker gewerkt wel, boys ❤️ Pics by @whoisjoost 📸

    Amsterdam Bijlmer Projection

    🛸 Beam me up, Scotty! 🛸

    Last week we’ve worked our asses of together with
    HOBU amsterdam , Femke Kempkes and Machteld Aardse to beam a fine selection of curated posters on a building near Amsterdam UMC to support all of the lifesavers over there.

    Yesterday (12.05.20), late night, we visited the site to enjoy this special side quest with local artists from the Bijlmer who’ve put in tremendous work to pull this one off!

    Oh, and in case you were wondering, there’s only two of these special projectors in the WORLD. 🚨❤️

    Poster in shop!

    🚨🚨 You can support us by buying this 3-layers of silky-smooth goodness designed by the one and only Kris Andrew Small and printed by the lovely Kapitaal Utrecht. 🚨🚨

    A word of caution, these bad boys are more fluorescent than an American girl at her first rave. So, make sure to wear some shades when looking directly at it! 🛑

    We’ve only got 50 and these buns will sell out faster than Drake did. 100% of the proceeds go right back into the project, just to make sure we can keep SSSS alive! 🔥

    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.

    🚨 Click here to go to our shop! 🚨

    10.000.000 impressions with WeTransfer

    Did you know we’re doing this thing pro bono? We’re not trying to humble brag here, okay maybe a little, but we do want to tell you how heavily we rely on the help of others. You can imagine the looks on our faces when WeTransfer offered us 10.000.000 impressions for Stay Sane, Stay Safe the upcoming 3-4 weeks. ❤️ That’s right. TEN MILLION IMPRESSIONS. For free! That’s a shit ton of people, guys! Don’t be surprised to see SSSS featured on @WeTransfer during your download. 😏 And don’t worry, In the feature we’ve obviously showcased some of your works as well. Go share some files to see if yours got featured. 🤯

    Volkskrant

    📰 Old skool coverage part deux, but this time around exactly how it should be! 📰

    We got interviewed by awesome Dutch news paper de Volkskrant about SSSS and they even wanted to feature some of your posters. 🚨

    So, get a copy of tomorrow’s Volkskrant Magazine, or check this link, to see if it's your poster that reaches over 300.000 Dutch readers! 🚨

    Dutch national news coverage

    ❤️❤️ Did we tell you that we love you guys? Being busy and all, we completely forgot to tell you that SSSS sort of got covered by the national news over here in NL. Our friends over at Graphic Matters got interviewed, but NOS decided to cut out most of the story so not even SSSS was mentioned, haha. 🔥

    🤗 Make no mistake, we really appreciate coverage, but it’s vital for the survival of project to at least mention Stay Sane, Stay Safe and the foundation. That’s why we love you AND the internet. There seems to be more room for nuance and background in new age journalism and we really appreciate that! ❤️❤️

    Nevertheless, thanks NOS! 🔥

    First posters up in hospitals!

    💉 Our biggest goal, at 1st, was getting some posters to hospitals. 💉

    A couple of days ago we shared some snapshots of preparing the posters for delivery, but now we would like to share some pictures 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! ❤️

    Alley Gallery Hasselt

    🖤💛❤️ We were pleasantly surprised when we got tagged on Instagram by the lovely Alley Gallery.🖤💛❤️

    Some SSSS posters got curated by Alley and hung up in their art project called Wallstreet in Hasselt, Belgium. Wallstreet is an open air 24/7 gallery! Very cool!

    Discover more about them, and Wall Street, over here.

    Thanks, guys! ❤️

    📸 by @jeepee1965

    Taking over a Dutch city with Graphic Matters

    We wanted to do more than just inspiring the home-stayers online. After all, posters are also meant to be shown in public. Luckily, Graphic Matters in Breda (NL) stepped in and made us an offer we couldn’t refuse!

    Graphic Matters is actually an international graphic design festival in Breda that happens every other two years. Each edition has had an extensive programme with a unique theme to showcase the importance and impact of graphic design on our daily lives. Graphic Matters is balls deep into the design scene and we’re very proud to have them help us.

    Together with Graphic Matters we’ve selected 12 prints that will be printed and showcased in 275 spots in the city of Breda (The Netherlands). DEAR LORD!
    They will also help us reach out to more media outlets (nationally and internationally), running ads and also to give some more exposure to the designers of the posters.

    We're not saying you should go out, but if you have to run some errands or walk your dog, snap a pic if you spot a poster in the wild and share them on your socials. You can tag @studio_lennartsendebruijn @graphicmatters @staysanestaysafe or @overdeschreef and we'll try to feature you!

    Silky smooth screen printing by Kapitaal

    This week we received some VERY nice photo's of a screen printing process. And boy, it's a special one to say the least.

    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.

    Anyways, check out how fluorescent the first layer is! We've received some clips of the process as well, but we're still working on a video embed function on SSSS.

    Kapitaal stacking it up!

    Mmmm-mmm these colors go together better than warm apple pie and Jim Levenstein. The second layer of silk screen printing in a zesty orange by Kapitaal really makes Kris's design pop!

    Now, there's just one layer left!

    We're not completely sure when we'll receive the prints, but our best bet is this Monday.
    Silk screen printing takes a lot of time and work, so we're gonna have to come up with somethings special for these bad boys.

    Kapitaal, Kris, we <3 you!

    Stay Sane Stay Safe × Kapitaal Utrecht x Kris Andrew Small

    LOOK AT THEM. Just look at them!
    Three layers of silky smooth goodness!

    What has started out as a simple three part plan is now sprouting into all different kinds of creative endeavours. We couldn't be happier with partnering up with Kapitaal Utrecht and Kris Andrew Small.

    Silk screen printing costs a shit ton of time and phyisical labor. Combine that with a world-class designer and you've got yourself the best love-baby since tea and biscuits. Or chicken and waffles. Or stroopwafel from the magnetron.

    Since all of this is pro bono, including Kapitaal and Kris's efforts, it makes this side-quest within SSSS even more special. Therefore we feel obliged to come up with something nice for these poster, pinky promise.

    We've asked Kris and Kapitaal if we could sell a couple of them in a webshop to cover the costs we're making right now. We double-checked if it was okay and they happily approved!

    Making poster packages for hospitals

    HOLY CRAP!

    Two and a half men weeks ago we started impulsively with SSSS. What started with designing one poster for a friend who works at a hospital, quickly exploded into a positive poster platform with more than 1000 designs from over 73 countries.

    We had a bunch of goals, but our main objective is printing some kick-ass designs and sending them out to hospitals around The Netherlands (for now). This is something that costs a lot of dough, but since it's just the three of us and we're doing this all pro bono, we rely heavily on others to make this dream possible.

    Prints, prints, prints

    Today we've received 2500 posters all printed by our friends over at Drukkerij Tielen. They’ve been printing for over a century and the coolest thing is that they’re an independent family business.
    You can imagine that their work is fire if they managed to keep up for so long! They invest a lot in new (printing) technologies to keep things fresh and exciting. They know their shit!

    And yes, we know what you are thinking. Which designs? We’ve curated 10 different designs, which are yours and some of our own. We took some pictures of the entire shipping process today and you can see some of the designs we've curated.
    Of course, we'll release a full list of all the artists we've picked.

    And that’s not all.

    SEND IT

    Last week Stroom Den Haag offered to help us out with €500! Stroom Den Haag is an art center in The Hague (NL) that does a bunch of cool stuff. They don’t really commit to any particular movement, which is nice because everybody gets a chance to come up with something great. In our experience the center is open to anyone with stimulating ideas or who are seeking info regarding art and the urban environment.
    They’re progressive and we fucking love that!

    By the way, the name Stroom was chosen because it stands for energy and movement. It’s Dutch for current, which can both electrical or at sea, of course!

    The money that Stroom Den Haag has offered us is very helpful because now we have some cashflow for sending out the posters to 27 hospitals in NL! We'll be sending out the (first) batch on monday.

    WE ARE STOKED!

    Stay Sane, Stay Safe,

    Max
    Menno
    Ronald

    It's Nice That... we got featured

    😱 Second big feature this week! Holy crap! 😱

    There's a reason why It's Nice That's Insta bio states: 'Championing creativity since 2007 👌'.
    Getting featured over there is like getting picked first at P.E.!

    We're very thankful to Lucy Bourton for writing such a nice article about SSSS.

    ❤️ *"Not just another project for designers: meet a new poster platform promoting positivity. In less than a week, open poster platform Stay Sane, Stay Safe has built a rapid response to how designers can contribute to promoting positivity at this time.

    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.”* ...Read full article here ❤️

    SSSS early adopters: The Brand Identity

    🚀 We've got lift off! 🚀

    Just a couple of days after launching Stay Sane, Stay Safe we got featured at The Brand Identity. And if you're a little bit familiar with design, TBI is one of the best platforms you can be featured on. 💥

    We're super thankful for getting some traction in the early stages of the project. Let's see where this whole thing will be heading! ☝🏿

    ❤️ "Download and print these posters as a show of support for your local lifesavers and home-stayers

    Dutch studio Lennarts & De Bruijn has been working around the clock, making a selection of posters to send to hospitals as a show of support for the inspirational workers that are going above and beyond to fight COVID-19 and save the lives of its victims. To give everyone access to the posters and the opportunity to make their own versions, the studio has launched STAY SANE / STAY SAFE" ...read more ❤️