Bill of health

‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ runs the old epithet, but our approach to staying healthy and what that really means becomes ever more complex. A growing awareness of physical and mental well-being is often shrouded in ambiguity, but personal experience of illness often lays bare such philosophising. An encounter with lung cancer prompted designer Chris Allen to initiate a fundraising project, Print Run, inviting 20 design companies to each create a poster in response to the theme of health and design, and how they influence one another. How the participants have responded to such a vast, human subject is typically varied. Rose’s poster is the perfect marriage of text, form and imagination, representing 365 varieties of apple in the shape of this health-bearing fruit. To Anthony Burrill, good health is about turning off the computer, while A Practice for Everyday Life focuses on getting enough daylight. Others thought more holistically about healthy creative practice/ posters by Emmi and Proud highlight the need to take risks and challenge oneself to make good work. Cartlidge Levene’s contribution argues that designers’ sense of well-being extends from understanding processes, so its poster depicts the aspects of screen-printing that went into its making. Nick Jones at Browns has simply drawn a fearful black crab, symbolising The Big C. The 20 screen-printed designs go on sale on Friday, with all proceeds donated to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

Print Run, from 8-21 June, at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2