Stylogenyin the style of Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)

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Pictorial & machine age · 2022–present · Eastern Europe, Global / networked

Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)

Also known as Ukrainian resistance graphics, Saint Javelin, Be Brave Like Ukraine, 'Russian warship' stamp graphics, Ukrainian wartime posters

The graphics of Ukraine's defence since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, made by the state, the national post, agencies, illustrators and volunteers at home and abroad. Flat figures in the flag's blue and yellow are drawn to read at sticker and stamp size; sacred and official forms are recast with dark humour, from an icon Madonna cradling a Javelin missile to a soldier giving the finger to the cruiser Moskva on a postage stamp. Memes, merchandise and photographs under the trident turn morale into fundraising and a national brand of bravery.

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A blue-and-yellow illustration shows a woman wearing a sunflower wreath with flowing ribbons and an embroidered blouse, holding a bundle of wheat. Large yellow capitals beneath her read “OUR HARVEST.”
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

Use it with care

This is the visual culture of a country under invasion, and most of it refers to real events and real people, among them the Snake Island border guards, the Moskva and the tractors that towed away abandoned Russian tanks, so use it to support Ukraine and its fundraisers, not as an edgy 'war' look for unrelated products. Saint Javelin is a charity brand run by Christian Borys, built on Chris Shaw's painting with his after-the-fact acceptance; lawyers for the soldier who spoke the warship line and for the Ukrainian military filed for an EU trademark on it in March 2022 against clothing firms that tried to register it; the stamps belong to Ukrposhta and the campaign to the state and Banda, so do not sell copies or close pastiches. The icon parodies put a weapon where the Christ child should be, and Borys defends them by the tradition of icons that comforted soldiers, but they can hurt believers, and even the murals have been contested (a trident halo on a Kyiv Saint Javelin mural was painted over), so do not put weapons into the sacred images of other faiths. Scholars such as Nadia Kaneva describe the Be Brave campaign as nation branding used as propaganda, so label state material as state material, and never present a generated image as a Ukrainian stamp, campaign poster or work of a Ukrainian artist.

01

How it works

  • Build the picture from the flag's blue and yellow in flat, unshaded fields, so the nation reads even at the size of a stamp or a sticker.
  • Reduce soldiers, saints, farmers and animals to simplified, flat figures isolated on a plain ground, so one image survives as a sticker, a flag, a T-shirt and a profile picture.
  • Recast a revered or official form (an Orthodox icon, a postage stamp, a film still) and slip the war into it with dark irony: a missile in the Madonna's arms, an obscene gesture on a state stamp.
  • Answer the news within days: turn a quoted reply, a towed tank or a sunk ship into a picture, put designs to a public vote, and reissue an image when events change it, as the warship stamp was reissued without the ship.
  • For official campaigns, pair documentary photographs of ordinary people and soldiers with the trident and short slogans in modular capitals drawn after the Kharkiv avant-garde.
  • Make images to be bought and shared, and often tie a sticker, stamp or shirt to a fundraiser for humanitarian aid, the army or animal shelters, as Saint Javelin's charities and the Dog Patron sheet's surcharge do.

Ukraine and its diaspora after Russia's full-scale invasion of 24 February 2022, building on the poster boom of the Euromaidan protests of 2013–2014 (the StrikePoster group's yellow drop on blue, 'I am a drop in the ocean') and the 'patriotic posters' of the war in the Donbas since 2014: the national post Ukrposhta (a stamp design contest opened on 1 March 2022), the Office of the President with the Kyiv agency Banda (Be Brave Like Ukraine, from April 2022), illustrators posting in Facebook groups and poster initiatives such as Zaporizhzhia's Wartime Posters, volunteers abroad such as Christian Borys in Toronto (Saint Javelin) and, around them, the international NAFO meme movement

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Non-representational, Horror vacui, Gloss & highlights, Chrome & 3D render, Luxurious & glamorous

Palette

  • #0057b7
  • #ffd700
  • #f4f1e8
  • #1c1c1c
  • #4b5320
  • #c9a14a

Typefaces

  • KTF Jermilov (Kyiv Type Foundry, 2021), a modular display face whose capitals are built from a few geometric elements on a 3 × 5 square grid, after the typographic practice of the Kharkiv avant-garde designer Vasyl Yermylov; used in Be Brave Like Ukraine

  • Yermylov Bold, made in 2018 for Banda's Ukraine NOW country brand and inspired by Yermylov's constructivist work

    the state's avant-garde lettering before the war

  • Captions drawn into the picture in illustrators' posters, such as Roman Tkachuk's 'What me? I didn't elect him'

    February 2022

  • Short slogans in the flag's blue and yellow on billboards and banners

    'Be brave like Ukraine', 'Bravery lives forever'

Known for

  • Saint Javelin (2022)

    Christian Borys, a Toronto journalist, had the Lviv graphic designer Evgeniy Shalashov adapt Chris Shaw's 2012 painting 'Madonna Kalashnikov' into an Orthodox-icon Madonna cradling an FGM-148 Javelin; first sold as stickers, then on flags, tote bags and shirts, raising more than US$1 million for humanitarian charities; the halo, first red, was recoloured blue and yellow, and the line grew into Saint HIMARS, Saint NLAW, Saint Stinger and other 'saints'

  • Ukrposhta stamp 'Russian warship, go f*** yourself!'

    (12 April 2022), sketch by Borys Grokh (also spelled Hrokh or Groh), winner of the popular vote in a contest opened on 1 March 2022: a soldier gives the finger to the cruiser Moskva, with blue sea above ochre sand in the colours of the flag and a postmark outlining Snake Island; grand prize of the Asiago International Philatelic Art Award, July 2023; with the rest of Ukrposhta's wartime stamps it also won 'Philatelic Campaign of the Year' at the World Post & Parcel Awards in Tallinn, June 2023

  • 'Russian warship... DONE!' (23 May 2022, the 40th day after the sinking), Ukrposhta's reissue of the stamp without the ship, with the day the Moskva sank, 14.04.2022, fixed in a mourning frame; part of the proceeds went to the KSE Foundation

  • Ukrposhta's later wartime stamps of 2022

    'Ukrainian Dream' (28 June), after 11-year-old Sofia Kravchuk's drawing of the An-225 Mriya flying to the stars decorated with pink flowers; 'Good evening, we are from Ukraine!' (28 July), illustrated by Anastasiia Bondarets and chosen by public vote, a Ukrainian tractor towing an abandoned Russian tank after real events in the Mykolaiv region; the 'Dog Patron' charity sheet (1 September) by Oleksandr Nikitiuk, eight scenes of the demining dog; 'Crimean bridge for an encore!' (4 November) by Yurii Shapoval, a scene from Titanic against the burning bridge; and 'Kherson is Ukraine!' (9 December) by Andrii Sahach, a watermelon slice for Kherson

  • Be Brave Like Ukraine

    (from April 2022), by Banda with the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the ministries of culture and digital transformation: photographs by Ukrainian photographers including Max Levin and Kateryna Kriuchkova, the trident in the logo and photographs, KTF Jermilov lettering and slogans in blue and yellow, on about 500 billboards in 21 Ukrainian cities and on billboards abroad including Times Square

  • NAFO (from May 2022)

    an international pro-Ukraine online movement, strong among serving and retired soldiers of Ukrainian and NATO armies and the Eastern European diaspora, rather than Ukrainian design: the Twitter artist Kamil Dyszewski's edited Shiba Inu 'Fellas', pasted into photographs and war footage to mock Russian propaganda; custom Fellas were drawn for people who donated to the Georgian Legion

  • Wartime Posters, an open-air initiative founded in Zaporizhzhia in 2022 by Olena Speranska and Gennadiy Kozub with the city's culture…

    …department and BIRUCHIY (from June 2022): first shown at the Ogaki poster museum in Japan, then in 19 exhibitions in Zaporizhzhia in 2022–2023; 309 works by 42 artists at Colgate University's Clifford Art Gallery in 2026

  • Pictoric Illustrators Club, a community of young Ukrainian illustrators and designers

    'Frontier of Life: Ukrainian Wartime Posters', Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 17–21 October 2022, its flyer showing two people hugging as colour-blocked figures

03

Make something in this style

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04

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleUkrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)2022–present · Eastern Europe, Global / networked

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

05

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, 'Saint Javelin' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Javelin)
  2. Wikipedia, 'Russian warship, go fuck yourself' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_warship,_go_fuck_yourself)
  3. Wikipedia, 'Be Brave Like Ukraine' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Brave_Like_Ukraine)
  4. Wikipedia, 'NAFO (group)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFO_(group))
  5. Wikipedia, 'Vasyl Yermilov' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Yermilov)
  6. Wikipedia, 'Ukraine NOW' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_NOW) (Banda's country brand, approved on 10 May 2018; the Yermylov Bold typeface created for it, after Vasyl Yermylov)
  7. Nadia Kaneva, 'With "bravery" as its new brand, Ukraine is turning advertising into a weapon of war', The Conversation (19 August 2022) (https://theconversation.com/with-bravery-as-its-new-brand-ukraine-is-turning-advertising-into-a-weapon-of-war-188408)
  8. Katya Teller, 'In a new campaign, Ukrainian creative agency Banda shows bravery as Ukraine's new brand', Bird in Flight (11 April 2022) (https://birdinflight.com/en/news/banda-brave-campaign.html) (photographers; 'The country's state symbol, the trident, is used as a part of the logo and photographs')
  9. It's Nice That, on Kyiv Type Foundry and KTF Jermilov (2 December 2021) (https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/kyiv-type-foundry-typography-graphic-design-021221)
  10. Ukrinform, '"Russian warship, go...!" postage stamp receives "Philatelic Oscar 2023"' (24 July 2023) (https://ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3739873-russian-warship-go-postage-stamp-receives-philatelic-oscar-2023.html)
  11. Euromaidan Press, '"Russian warship go f*ck yourself" et al win best stamp of the year award' (17 June 2023) (https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/06/17/russian-warship-go-fck-yourself-et-al-win-best-stamp-of-the-year-award-photos/) (Ukrposhta's wartime stamp campaign wins 'Philatelic Campaign of the Year' at the World Post & Parcel Awards, Tallinn, 14 June 2023)
  12. LB.ua, '"Russian warship, go f**k yourself!" How the stamp with the ship transformed Ukrainian philately' (30 April 2025) (https://en.lb.ua/news/2025/04/30/35754_russian_warship_go_fk_yourself.html)
  13. Ukrposhta, 'Ukrposhta issues "Patron Dog" charity postage stamps' (https://www.ukrposhta.ua/en/news/57723-ukrposhta-issues-patron-dog-charity-postage-stamps)
  14. Ukrposhta, 'Ukrposhta has issued the final postage stamps of the "Russian warship..." series' (23 May 2022) (https://www.ukrposhta.ua/en/news/57660-ukrposhta-vipustila-finalni-poshtovi-marki-serii-russkij-vonnij-korabl-) (issue on 23 May; '14.04.2022' fixed in the mourning frame; part of the proceeds to the KSE Foundation)
  15. Ukrposhta, 'The new stamp "Good evening, we are from Ukraine" will be on sale from July 28' (22 July 2022) (https://www.ukrposhta.ua/en/news/57700-the-new-stamp-good-evening-we-are-from-ukraine-will-be-on-sale-from-july-28) (sketch by Anastasia Bondarets; 'a Ukrainian tractor pulls an abandoned Russian tank', after real events in Mykolaiv region)
  16. Ukrposhta, 'For connoisseurs: Ukrainian wartime postage stamps' (https://www.ukrposhta.ua/en/marky-voiennoho-chasu) (dates and authors of 'Ukrainian Dream', 'Good evening, we are from Ukraine!', 'Dog Patron', 'Crimean bridge for an encore!' and 'Kherson is Ukraine!')
  17. Colgate University, 'Ukrainian Wartime Posters Exhibit Features Graphic Design as Cultural Resistance' (2026) (https://www.colgate.edu/news/stories/ukrainian-wartime-posters-exhibit-features-graphic-design-cultural-resistance)
  18. Pratt Institute, 'Frontier of Life: Ukrainian Wartime Posters' (October 2022) (https://www.pratt.edu/events/frontier-of-life-ukrainian-wartime-posters/)
  19. Euromaidan Press, 'Painful art: Ukrainian illustrators draw Russian war' (24 March 2022) (https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/03/24/painful-art-ukrainian-illustrators-draw-russian-war/)
  20. Elżbieta Olzacka, 'Ukrainian Wartime Posters as a Tool of Participatory Propaganda During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine', Czech Journal of International Relations 59/2 (2024), https://doi.org/10.32422/cjir.782 (https://cjir.iir.cz/index.php/cjir/article/download/782/743) (the poster boom since autumn 2013; StrikePoster's yellow drop on blue, 'I am a drop in the ocean'; 'patriotic posters' of the Donbas war from 2014; the 2022 resurgence)

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