Overlord — Minimalist

Operation Overlord put five Allied divisions ashore on fifty miles of Normandy coast on June 6, 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history. Almost 7,000 vessels crossed the Channel in a single night. Three airborne divisions had already dropped behind the beaches in the dark.

The Americans took Utah and Omaha. The British took Gold and Sword, the Canadians Juno. Utah went almost to plan. Omaha did not — the first waves were pinned on the shingle under the bluffs for hours, and the beach cost more than 2,000 casualties before the infantry fought its way up the draws.

By nightfall more than 150,000 men were ashore. This piece is a minimalist poster treatment of the operation, the five beaches marked as they were on the planning maps.

Two coastlines and five arrows. The design strips the largest invasion in history down to its geometry — England at the top, Normandy at the bottom, the Channel a flat band of teal between them, and a single landing craft silhouette for scale. The arrows fan out slightly as they cross, the way the real convoys did from the assembly area south of the Isle of Wight. Muted paper tones keep it period.