Campaigns, illustration and GIFs making us hate life in Britain just a little bit less - are you ready to vote tomorrow?
Tomorrow will see the United Kingdom endure yet another General Election to get us out of the bind that Brexit made, giving us so far a will-sapping parade of suits, charisma-voids and Twitter abuse that does nothing for the soul or imagination.
Business as usual, then - but the news of the snap election has thankfully got British creatives to work together and make things a little more bearable for culture vultures like us at Digital Arts.
Without further ado we present the best election-inspired imagery that's popped up in our inbox and social feeds recently.
Banksy does Brum
The biggest election art statement this week was Banksy's latest street art marvel, commenting on the UK's homelessness problem with his usual iconic aplomb.
BREAKING | Banksy has installed a piece of art in our city to highlight homelessness.
— Hello Birmingham (@HelloBham) December 9, 2019
Banksy: "God bless Birmingham. In the 20 minutes we filmed Ryan on this bench passers-by gave him a hot drink, two chocolate bars and a lighter - without him ever asking for anything." pic.twitter.com/XVjs4WlD7m
The above can be found in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.
Burger King Whopper
Not art, but this clever ad from Burger King is pitch-perfect branding based around an infamously dishonest part of the 2016 Brexit campaign.
This #burgerking ad has given me a craving for a whopper. ? pic.twitter.com/CjTqJp9QeE
— Daniel Edwards (@danieledwardsma) December 4, 2019
Rue Britannia
Political cartoonist for The Observer Chris Riddell portrays a weeping Lady Justice in a hard-hitting commentary on the state of the nation.
Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ZdEHLyYuyU
— chris riddell (@chrisriddell50) December 11, 2019
Rue Britannia, indeed.
The same old (Instagram) story?
For the first time ever, Instagram has added an election twist to its Story panel for UK users.
As of today, an icon will be by yours by the name of Vote! where you'll find a hashtag story of curated election-based art projects, mainly it seems made up of submissions to Jelly's popular Turn Up! project (see below).
There's also a few cool stickers you can use until the election time is over; the above doggy delight is our favourite.
Vote or Die
London collective Vote For Climate Or Die have made some awesome skateboard-inspired graphics to remind people to Vote or Die, alluding to the oncoming climate catastrophe.
Stickers bearing their gnarly designs have been given away free at select skate shops and skate parks in thirty UK cities.
They've got our vote
We've liked how a few digital artists have made brand new works to remind UK youth to register to vote; this 3D animated loop from Harry Bhalerao has got our vote for cutest election art yet.
REGISTER TO VOTE ? https://t.co/dZsUabM6EJ pic.twitter.com/NtWMFOFM4r
— Harry Bhalerao (@harrybhal_) November 19, 2019
Tampon Book legend Ana Curbelo has also got us far more animated than the beige gentlemen currently begging for our devotion at the ballot box.
Just over a week left to register to vote, do it if you haven’t already ?? https://t.co/DqCMgYHlHc #Elections2019 pic.twitter.com/QV37JL4Tlt
— Ana Curbelo (@untepid) November 18, 2019
Stellar creative agency Jelly London meanwhile are leading a whole campaign around getting people to register, the Turn Up venture, which has seen Marylou Faure create the below illo.
Time to register, it’s almost time to vote ?❤️
— Marylou Faure (@MarylouFaure) November 21, 2019
.
.
.#turnup #vote #2019 #ukelections #yourvoicematters #illustrations https://t.co/m6tt0Y1juP pic.twitter.com/EUSK0iyY8d
Jelly invited all artists to create an individual piece of work which formed part of an initial social media campaign to get 18-24 year olds to register to vote by the 26th November – and now, as they say, they plan to "hopefully make enough noise to make sure that everyone registered actually uses that vote on the 12th December."
Digital artists everywhere are welcome to contribute to their Turn Up! campaign, and all the works will be placed in a public dropbox to be crowd-sourced for multiple use. Why not have a pop? The whole country may see your work on today's Instagram Vote! tab.
It’s Our Time
We recently applauded the #ItsOurTime campaign for the great art that came out during this year's Global Climate Strike; now, the politically neutral venture has redoubled for an artistic reminder that this election is more than just about Brexit: it's about the future of our world, too.
In a co-venture with top creative network Glug, the aim is to get two million climate-concerned young people to register to vote by the 26th, and ad agencies including Wieden+Kennedy and Saatchi & Saatchi are already involved. The first action is getting these creative agencies to send an all-staff email encouraging employees to register to vote in time for the election, whilst calling on creatives to echo Jelly in making creative collateral in the name of the cause.
Here are some of the stellar pieces to catch our attention so far, starting with this perfect Penguin parody by Stephen Heffernan.
Stanley Chow's Labour poster
Finally, you can now buy a print of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's face by none other than the main man Stanley Chow.
Head over to Stanley's shop to buy it for one British pound or download for free there to print yourself.
