Thank You Heroes
The last year has been a tough one for people around the world. Everyone has been affected in one way or another by the coronavirus pandemic, which has posed difficult challenges for all of us, often keeping us apart from our loved ones and normal society.
However, the one thing that has brought us all together has been the global response to Covid-19. Transcending international boundaries, even when we haven’t been able to visit each other, we have banded together to overcome this epidemic. Vaccines are now being approved and rolled out and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
So, ifolor wanted to take this opportunity to show gratitude and appreciation for everyone who has worked so tirelessly over the last year to keep us safe and help us move forward. From health workers to emergency services personnel, from home schooling parents to postal workers, we decided to celebrate all of the heroes of the pandemic with a message of thanks all around Europe. Whether applauded and lauded or unsung, these heroes deserve public recognition for everything they have done to help combat the effects of coronavirus.
With this in mind, we came up with the idea of commissioning leading local artists in several different countries to produce huge posters, each one inspired by a different group of heroes that have sacrificed so much to help us in the last year. Once completed, each of these murals would then be displayed in prominent locations in major European cities as a striking sign of gratitude
Have a look at what some of these amazingly talented artists came up with below.
Switzerland
This wonderful mural, created in collaboration with Chanel Mühlhaupt, represents the incredible work done by postal workers throughout the pandemic. With retail and hospitality moving online out of necessity throughout much of 2020-21 and with home deliveries to locked down populations higher than ever, postal services have had to work even harder than usual. This image, displayed at Zurich Main Station, depicts a postal worker delivering mail around the world at rocket speed and showing the kind of positivity that has helped so many of us get through the last year.
The artist, Chanel Mühlhaupt, is a designer and illustrator who creates visual content and stories with a focus on emotive expression. She studied Multimedia Production in Chur, Switzerland and is now based in Zurich, producing graphic design and illustration, as well as content for social media.
Germany
Berlin Alexanderplatz station, one of the busiest in the German capital, is now home to this fantastic mural, commemorating all the parents who took on extra childcare responsibilities during the coronavirus pandemic. Mothers and fathers around the world not only had to work from home but, with many schools closing, also had to take on the unfamiliar roles of teachers to home-school their children. The artwork shows tired parents juggling the duties of teaching, working, cooking and cleaning, capturing what has been a chaotic period for so many families.
This amazing mural was created by German artist Franziska Viviane Zobel, an illustrator and designer from Stuttgart. An Art, Multimedia, Art History and Communication Design graduate from LMU Munich and the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, Franziska combines creativity with sustainability to create an incredible array of socially conscious graphic design pieces. Her poster, created in collaboration with ifolor, can also be seen on Invalidenstraße in Berlin.
Austria
This incredible mural to celebrate the outstanding work done by all of our health workers was created by Janina Kepczynski, an artist, illustrator and designer. Based in Vienna, which is where this work is being displayed, Janina and her graphic design studio JANINSKI create a powerful, playful mix of analogue and digital drawings. Educated at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Janina also co-hosts drawing nights in the city and lectures about networking.
In this piece, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can be seen looking after patients, administering vaccines and wearing personal protective equipment. Surrounded by the virus in the image, they are portrayed as remaining strong, powerful and central, as a reminder of and thanks for their amazing strength throughout the pandemic.
France
This striking work that conveys the impression of a movie poster is the work of Baptiste Drausin and portrays a wide variety of frontline workers across a plethora of industries, who have bravely continued working throughout the pandemic. Doctors, nurses, carers, teachers, couriers, retail staff, delivery drivers and more are all given their dues in the artist’s distinctive cartoon style, standing between the viewer and coronavirus in the composition.
Baptiste is a self-taught artist living in Paris and a self-proclaimed lover of DC comics, which have influenced his bold and recognisable artwork. This impressive mural is on display at Lyon’s Part-Dieu train station.
Italy
Created in partnership with artist and illustrator Denny di Pasquantonio, this artwork represents and celebrates Italian doctors working hard on the frontlines to protect the country from coronavirus. This bright and linear illustration represents a frontline doctor as he figuratively hugs the country, protecting it with love and care. The artwork was displayed in central Milan, just a few steps away from the world-renowned Duomo Cathedral.
Born in 1990 in Rome, Denny studied at the Rome Academy of Art, specialising in Editorial Graphics. After completing his studies, Denny realised that illustration was his calling and made it his focus, but never lost interest in other design areas.
We hope these amazing works, created in a collaboration between ifolor and these talented artists, have brightened your day and inspired you to show your own appreciation for the everyday heroes of the pandemic, in whatever creative form that may take!
Would you also like to be able to marvel at your photo masterpieces on a wall? With the ifolor photo canvas or the ifolor wall display, you can create your most beautiful pictures online in various formats.