You’ve seen it in all the photos from various No Kings protests. The most-shared peace poster of the year did not start with a client. Daniel John, writing in Creative Bloq, traces Warsaw calligrapher Barbara Galińska’s two-tone “STOP WAR” piece. Galińska, in an artist statement quoted by John, describes where it came from:

My graphic “STOP WAR!” was created as a result of an international calligraphy challenge in November 2023, the main goal of which was to stimulate the creativity of artists. My reaction to the assigned theme “Stop war!” was to move away from typical calligraphy towards a powerful work that addresses the global problem of war. So my main personal challenge was to find a new, original solution to the well-known phrase “Stop war!” and transform it into a graphically powerful universal symbol for peace.