Birmingham Design Festival's messages of love and hope in vibrant poster campaign

The billboard campaign was supposed to include advertisements for this year's event, booked through Jack Arts. But the space at 16 sites around Birmingham was still available, so co-founder Luke Tonge designed six typographic artworks include quotes like "Hope for the best" and "Love each other".

Bright and bold, each poster is bursting with colour, which pays tribute to the festival's 2020 theme. But Luke had barely any time to pull the campaign together: "There was no time for multiple routes, or even to show the team – I just hit send and hoped I'd spelt everything correctly," he says.

"I believe now is precisely the time we need clear and positive messages in our shared spaces – to bring a smile and counter the perpetual bad-news," Luke adds.

Both Luke and Daniel Acorn have had a lot of requests from people wanting to buy the posters. They're looking into doing a short run to raise money for charity, so watch this space. "We're still not sure when BDF will be possible, but I can't wait to hang out with our attendees and speakers for what will be I'm sure, a particularly enjoyable celebration of colour," says Luke.

You can keep up to date with their plans via @designfestbrum on social media, or via birminghamdesignfestival.org.uk.