Keep calm and carry on and the color Bistre

I stumbled onto Dictionary.com's beta version of 'Flashcards' and started a little quiz on colors - which is what brought me here.  One color, 'bistre', I wasn't familiar with.  Naturally, I googled it.  This 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster came up as one of the search results.  I have loved this poster and all the spins of it I've seen becoming popular recently.  What's really great, though, is the original intent of the poster.  It reminds me of those Foundation for a Better Life ads (I'm not sure if that organization's motives are entirely pure, I haven't really looked into where they get funding/support, etc.).  'Motivation... pass it on'.  Regardless, the message is still similar.  No one is trying for a monetary gain - just a morale boost, courage, cohesiveness, loyalty, and rational thinking.  It's the same as when I tell myself that it's going to be fine and that things will work out - only on a larger scale; and it can't be just me that thinks it feels good to have someone besides yourself there to encourage you.  It makes you feel less crazy.  Moral of the story:  It's okay to do good things just to do good.

Via Etsy & Guardian.Co.Uk

A brief history from Wikipedia:

Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of World War II, intended to raise the morale of the British public under the threat of impending invasion. It was little known and never used. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private sector companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of other products. There are only two known surviving examples of the poster in the public domain.^[1]

The poster was initially produced by the Ministry of Information in 1939 during the beginning of World War II. It was intended to be distributed in order to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster. Two-and-a-half million copies were printed, although the poster was distributed only in limited numbers. The designer of the poster is not known.

The poster was third in a series of three. The previous two posters from the series, "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" (800,000 printed) and "Freedom is in Peril" (400,000 printed) were issued and used across the country for motivational purposes, as the Ministry of Information assumed that the events of the first weeks of the war would demoralise the population. Planning for the posters started in April 1939; by June designs were prepared, and by August 1939, they were on their way to the printers, to be placed up within 24 hours of the outbreak of war. The posters were designed to have a uniform device, be a design associated with the Ministry of Information, and have a unique and recognisable lettering, with a message from the King to his people. The slogans were created by civil servants, with Waterfield coming up with "Your Courage" as "a rallying war-cry that will bring out the best in everyone of us and put us in an offensive mood at once". These particular posters were designed as "a statement of the duty of the individual citizen", un-pictorial, to be accompanied by more colloquial designs. The "Your Courage" poster was much more famous during the war, as it was the first to go up, very large, and was the first of the Ministry of Information's posters. The press, fearful of censorship, created a backlash, and thus a lot of material related to these posters has been kept by archives.

NOTE TO SELF:  Be inspiring.