A Poster a Day by The Good Life Society

CultureShort Reads

May 15

Lockdown advice from the powers that be has been a little confusing – to say the least. It was Frankie Boyle who highlighted the fact that we’re now told to ‘Stay Alert’ of a virus that’s 0.125 microns in diameter. So, we’ve decided to take news into our own, well scrubbed hands. We want to provide clarity – and a dose of fun.

These are the headlines of our times. Welcome to the The Spring 2020 Daily News.

Written by Tom Cronk

As I write these words, our creative team at Some Good Ideas has been apart for well over two months. We last saw each other in early March, having taken a relatively early decision to cease commuting to our new office in Southwark. We had only been there a few weeks before all this happened. And while it was all new in many ways, with new key cards and new views and new pubs to explore, it had very quickly become home for us; a hub of creativity that helped spark some of our best ideas yet.

We truly are great together. We’re a powerhouse of ideas fuelled by a genuine passion for what we do and, occasionally, a few too many jammy dodgers. So how would we fare now that we’re apart, connected solely by WhatsApp and Zoom, with more time alone to self-motivate, taking proper lunch breaks, making stuff, sticking it on the wall and scribbling hurried notes to one another? Early on, I knew there was a risk of a semi-hibernation state taking hold. Perhaps we’d go through the motions, get the work done in our pyjamas (nothing wrong with that) and do what was expected, of course, but would we really have the spark to come up with new ideas and execute them while we’re all separated?

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The first hint that creativity was firmly off the back-burner came as we created this website, Some Good Ideas, in a fortnight. It saw Seamus, our Head of Design, working with a team of 15 truly exceptional designers to build something wonderful from scratch. “Yep.” I thought. “Everything’s going to be alright”.

“Yep.” I thought. “Everything’s going to be alright”.

Tom Cronk

Then, with a million other nuanced and interesting projects on the go, Charlie (our founder) and Seamus came together with an idea to create a daily headline for every day of lockdown. From disinfectant-gate to the sourdough revolution, we were hardly short of Good Ideas. After a few days of back and forth settling on design styles and precise wording, we were on the cusp of something great, something hugely powerful in its simplicity and confidence.

They’re big, they’re bold, they’re full of colour. They’re all I hoped for and more. I know we’re all proud of them. We’ve even printed a few of our early favourites as big A0 posters to bring some life back to our sister business, Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, while it’s shuttered and under refurbishment.

We’ll be putting every poster on our Instagram over the coming days and we’d love for you to let us know your favourite, so do please leave a comment and feel free to suggest your own headlines. Day #33, DON’T DRINK DETTOL, is an early frontrunner for crowd favourite, but for me, it’s Day #40, JOIN THE LAND ARMY: GROW SOMETHING GOOD.