It’s fair to say this post is a little behind-the-times, but I finally want to get round to recording the story behind my “Get Excited & Make Things” image – and also releasing the files, which was always my intention…
I was a little frustrated with myself and the world one day, and went to sit in Hoxton Square to do the Guardian crossword as a remedy.
Flicking through the G2 section I came across a short article about the “Keep Calm & Carry On” WW2 poster phenomenon.
It occurred to me that this was exactly the wrong sentiment for this age – and in fact the stoicism it recommends was been viewed ironically in the main by those who purchased it.
I started sketching on the paper a contrary statement, where stiff upper lip was replaced by a stiff upper arm from soldering…
The royal crown was replaced by one made of spanners (or wrenches, for our yanqui friends) – and Get Excited & Make Things was born.
I posted it to flickr, where to date it has had over 90k views. It got turned into t-shirt of the week by my friends at Howies (and became their fastest selling shirt ever, apparently!) with the proceeds going towards their Do Lectures.
Then, an art print by Jen and friends at 20×200 – with proceeds going to Creative Commons.
Along with that, It got featured in various press articles, and there’s a flickr pool for spottings in the wild.
It’s still available via my mates at Mule Design – with the proceeds going to Smallcanbebig.org.
I only mention it’s success (though gratifying personally, obviously – and I’m very happy that it’s provided some small contributions to good causes) – because it seems that it has resonated with so many people.
And that’s the really amazing thing – that there might be a determination, en-masse – to really get the blood pumping and make our way out of the messes we’ve created.
With that in mind, I’m offering the original files under a CC-non-commercial, attribution, share-alike licence.
If you want to use the images for commercial means, we can talk of course – about you giving some donation to a good cause in exchange. I say that, as it’s cropped up in a few places being used without prior permission for commercial ends…
So here they are.
Thank you to everyone so far who has bought a shirt, a print – or just printed it out and stuck in up in their work place or college.
Please stay excited, please stay making.
Petafloptimism 
Great write up of a great thing.
Thanks for the reminder.
I thought this was a really great thing too BUT that the spanner crown is a really cheesy and pointless idea, just ruins it.
Maybe I can fix that now. Thank you.
Thanks for your incisive criticism, anonymous coward – please do fix it! Can’t wait to see what you do.
I’m a big fan of the crown 😉
Nicely done, Jones, good write up! Was wondering myself where exactly it came from. Finally got myself a t-shirt last week.
This has achieved such a legendary status that some of my fellow RCAers actually thought you designed the original “Keep Calm and Carry On” as well (and yes, they were brits, and no, I won’t give names). So there, you created a timeless piece of quality with this one! thank you for sharing!
Over the summer, I adapted this into a Get a Little Sad and Make Things design, with all profits also going to Small Can Be Big.
Info and explanation here: http://jayhathaway.com/2009/07/28/a-little-sad/
Making this and it’s subsequent embrace by people just shows you what great things can come from getting excited and making things.
That’s pretty cool! First time I heard/seen it… someone tweeted about it.
Thanks Matt
I will do a green and white version and enter it into the Visual Lexicon magazine. Will credit you
Cheers
http://lexicon.vcdc.gr/conception
Beautiful !
And what makes this paper interesting is tha twe understand how you applied your motto to yourself.
“Do what you say, say what you do”
Bravo
G
matt,
left you a message on flickr… please shoot me a line back via my email address.
had a question about “get excited…”
best,
joe
Is the GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS poster available in the light green color? Who can I contact? I love it.
Thanks!
I love this slogan. I just was it for the first time.
I’d like to do something with it myself, maybe make tee shirts of a slightly different design (here in the US, the main graphic is usually on the back with a smaller logo or something, like the crown, over the left breast). I use the CC license myself, for photos, but am unsure how to provide attribution with a tee-shirt.
Please let me know.
This T-Shirt is absolutely amazing! The design would also look good printed out in a frame. Or as a skin for a smartphone…
All the best
I work under this poster every day – it is bordered by a growing collage of paper, mosaic and metal… 🙂 but oh no! wait! I have just noticed the version I bought from amazon doesnt have the wrench crown! 😦 Noooooooooo! I love that bit particularly….
I found this post by searching for ‘get excited and make things’ after watching this week’s Man Lab where James was wearing this shirt! I’ll be buying one 🙂
And now it turns out that Howies no longer sell them. How can I get hold of one?
the image has been released under the creative commons licenses, so you can just take it and print your own. that is what I did. I just didn’t pick good enough quality. Nigel
It lost my original comment – I found this post by searching for ‘get excited and make things’ after watching this week’s Man Lab and James was wearing a shirt!
hello – you can get the shirts from here: http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/get-excited-and-make-things-shirt