Notes, thoughts, and news on synthetic biology by 
I sort of love the "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" posters that have become the darling of interior decorating bloggers and graphic design jokesters alike in the past few years. I even have one of the posters hanging in my apartment. Then I saw Merlin's version.
At first I LOLed, and then I was like "huh." How did we get here? How did this meme evolve from stoic World War II propaganda to hilarious Richard Dawkins jokes?
And thus, the phylogenetic tree of "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" posters was born:
High res here.
Life Science
Comments
Missed one:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38041210
Keep calm and carry yarn.
Posted by: pelican | January 27, 2010 10:54 AM
Oh man! That one is awesome! I know I must have missed a lot more :(
Posted by: Christina | January 27, 2010 10:57 AM
Thanks for putting this together. I've seen these floating around here and there, but it's fun to see it all on one page!
Posted by: Beverly | January 27, 2010 4:23 PM
Here's another... Stay Happy And Don't Die
http://www.mysoti.com/mysoti/designer/stuartwitts/product/671552/stuartwitts--tshirt--Stay-Happy-And-Dont-Die
Posted by: Stuart Witts | January 27, 2010 4:23 PM
Keep calm and rock on (mid-century style):
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33959826
Posted by: jaime | January 27, 2010 4:51 PM
Nice! Keep 'em coming, I'll have to make a bigger tree!
Posted by: Christina | January 27, 2010 4:53 PM
well i recognize my type on print there! i'm part of a meme!
Posted by: nan lawson | January 27, 2010 7:24 PM
What stands out to me from this is that, as in evolutionary biology, sometimes the earlier well-evolved forms (in this case the original poster, which obviously had a lot of throught go into it) are often much more elegant and beautiful than later random mutations.
Nice round-up Christina. Thanks for putting it all together.
Posted by: Samir | January 28, 2010 4:18 AM
A flickr group of these and more Keep Calm variations:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/keepcalm/
Posted by: Scott Burnham | January 28, 2010 6:51 AM
How many of those, when printed on a t-shirt, would get you arrested at an airport?
Posted by: Lassi Hippeläinen | January 28, 2010 7:28 AM
Someone messed up:
http://thereisnorobotgod.blogspot.com/2009/11/god-fucking-damnit.html
Posted by: Michael | January 28, 2010 10:10 AM
Don't forget "Freak Out and Throw Stuff." it's on Etsy somewhere
Posted by: Mousue | January 28, 2010 10:27 AM
Keep calm and cover your bum.
Posted by: gretak | January 28, 2010 11:21 AM
don't forget the newly minted conan o'brien one!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/claylarsen/4298622715/in/photostream/
Posted by: victoria | January 28, 2010 11:34 AM
Have added your info to my KCCO blog: http://ww2poster.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/the-evolution-of-an-internet-meme/
Posted by: drbexl | January 28, 2010 4:38 PM
Another one missing: http://mjays.net/post/339780066/keep-calm-and-make-it-helvetica-ultralight
Posted by: jason | January 29, 2010 10:41 AM
i'm still going strong, since 2006. and, through feb. 14th, i'm making a $5 donation to the red cross haitian relief efforts for every purchase.
thanks for the fun!
Posted by: victoria | January 29, 2010 12:29 PM
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yotam_hadar/3832384287/
Posted by: ymh | January 29, 2010 10:46 PM
I love this post.... Very funny and very close to home.. as I'm the one who made the 'keep calm and Ride on' print with the bike!
ps- I think there's another shop on Etsy that has about 50 different versions of Keep Calm..
Posted by: Jen | February 1, 2010 2:41 PM
I just got the crown tattooed on the inside of my wrist as a constant reminded to 'Keep Calm and Carry On'.
Posted by: Kenzie | February 3, 2010 5:24 PM
Love this! I just got this print recently.http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40289195
Posted by: Kate | February 9, 2010 10:52 PM
my take on them http://www.behance.net/gallery/KEEP-CALM-VARIATIONS/573719
Posted by: tind | July 20, 2010 9:30 AM