Designers Against Coronavirus book unites Malika Favre, M/M Paris, Akatre, and more in interpreting the crisis

Designers Against Coronavirus was first launched as a digital archive and Instagram account back in March 2020 by Milan-based brand design studio Carosello Lab, to bring creatives together during the scary early days of the crisis. It called out to artists for their “personal visual interpretation of the current Coronavirus crisis” and in two weeks it received over 2,000 submissions of work from illustrators and designers all over the world. The studio curated these down to 350 pieces from 44 countries, including work by renowned designers such as Malika Favre, M/M Paris, Akatre, Vrints-Kolsteren, Anagrama, Gio Pastori, Futurneue, Xavier Altena, Lundgren+Lindqvist and Marylou Faure. The work covered it all, from healthcare heroes to quarantine and social distancing, in myriad ways designed to attract attention to vital messaging and comfort us with a little light relief and “spark of hope”.

In the first month the site had 20,000 visitors – perhaps a measure of people’s need for positivity and creativity during that time – and now the project is being realised as a book, sold exclusively through the Italian Red Cross e-shop with all proceeds going directly to the charity. You can also donate to the charity through the DAC site.

The brief to artists was quite open, Carosello Lab’s art director and graphic designer Kim Costantino tells It’s Nice That, in order to “present the Covid-19 emergency through the eyes of the best designers and illustrators around the world,” as a counter to the “fear and distrust spread by the virus”. Many artworks were created specifically in response to the times, others were previously created pieces that suddenly seemed apt to share. The book divides the work into four chapters that appeared as concurrent themes throughout the submissions: Let’s be careful, Let’s stay united, Let’s keep thinking, Let’s remain joyful. It hopes to tell a story of “solidarity and collaboration” and create a document of the era.

The book features 272 works, 17 interviews with internationally known creatives, two short introductory essays and a foreword by Francesco Rocca, president of the Italian Red Cross. Production was made possible with support from Fedrigoni, Luxoro, Grafiche Antiga and Artalia.