Everyday Blues Calendar

posted by Robyn Pitts February 8, 2022

Created by Oriel Wells, a Creative in advertising, Everyday Blues is a calendar with a difference, holding the UK government to account and raising money for 12 charities. The calendar is composed of daily news headlines from 2021, keeping track of the Conservative government’s actions over the past year.

“By the end of 2020 the Tory government had made so many mistakes, given so much public money to their mates, brought in so many more overtly hostile and violent policies and let so many bodies pile high, yet the dominant narrative being pushed both by both them and the media was still a positive one – of them steering the country through an “unprecedented”pandemic. This happens every year, as the individual events all blend into one and we’re fed the same lies – that we are struggling because of vulnerable groups and minorities, not because of the party in power’s avarice and incompetency.”

Everyday Blues is a record of the actual events of 2021, day by day, allowing us to easily keep track of how we got to where we are and who is actually responsible. The calendar puts us back in control of the narrative, and finally holds the government to account.

Oriel studied English Literature at uni, before going on to become a Creative at various advertising agencies. Whilst at her previous agency which focused more on below the line work (lots of emails, banner ads, and social posts) she co-founded a proactive campaign called Fund Femme. The campaign aimed to address the gender inequality in our economy by creating a global online directory of women and non-binary business owners. “It was a real passion project and meant a lot of hours after work and on weekends, but it was really fun to do, especially because we had such an amazing team who were all so dedicated to building something meaningful,” describes Oriel.

The Everyday Blues calendar follows along a similar line of campaigning. Providing a somewhat joyful twist to a serious topic, the calendar features artwork by 12 left-wing artist. Oriel states; “They’re all people that I genuinely admire and it’s been an absolute joy to work with them all. I wanted the calendar to contain a big variety of different artistic styles – from still life paintings to photography, collage to illustration – and I think this mishmash of creativity has worked really well in making what could have been a very depressing project into something much more joyful.” All of the featured artworks were created in response to the calendar; some reference particular headlines, others capture the emotions generated by the government’s actions, and a couple are more hopeful imaginings of an alternative world.

Everyday Blues was produced in collaboration with In Perpetuum – People of Print’s publishing crowdfunding platform. Speaking on the collab, Oriel explains; “I was already a big fan of People of Print and everything they do to champion creativity andplatform so many amazing people. Initially, I just reached out to see if they had any advice on where I could get the calendars printed, and Marcroy was very kind and told me about the publishing wing In Perpetuum. They were very keen to support the campaign which was obviously very exciting, so it all turned out great!”

Funds raised from the calendar go towards supporting 12 organisations selected by each of the artists featured. As a result, the charities Everyday Blues supports fight for a wide variety of causes, including women’s rights, trans rights, refugee rights, anti-knife crime, and the climate crisis.

So what’s in store next for Oriel and Everyday Blues? “The grand plan is to create a calendar every year in the run up to the next election, to gather more and more proof as to why we should never vote for a Tory government again,” says Oriel. Although, as Oriel puts it, “it is quite depressing keeping track of the news every single day”, she hopes for Everyday Blues to become a larger open source project where everyone can submit their headlines, which will not only save her some time, but would also remove representational limitations through using a wider range of news sources.