Power to the people's placards: Save Our Placards project – in pictures

Save Our Placards exhibition beneath Hungerford Bridge on the South Bank. The placards on display represented a fraction of the hundreds of placards, banners and costumes given to the Save Our Placards team at the end of the March for the Alternative on 26 March 2011
Photograph: James Burton

Youth workers Laurice O'Sullivan (left) and Julia Wall with Laurice's creation You're As Shit As This Banner. Made in 10 minutes out of a bedsheet, two poles and a pair of old jeans, Laurice's banner led the parade off at 10am
Photograph: Katja Medic

Banner-maker Ed Hall (left) and artist Svein Moxvold walk along the Embankment with their chosen placards. Svein picked the placard How on Earth Do You Sleep at Night?, referring to a question Matt Baker asked David Cameron on The One Show a week before the March for the Alternative
Photograph: James Burton

During the parade, Svein Moxvold's placard prompted a range of answers, from the child who told him 'by getting into bed' to the man who said eight pints usually did the trick
Photograph: James Burton

Rita Ruggeri, a women's rights campaigner, holding the placard 18 Millionaires in the Cabinet. Her own placard from the March for the Alternative is one of a selection that has been given by the Save Our Placards project to the Museum of London. More on her placard can be found on the project's blog
Photograph: Katja Medic

Passersby at the exhibition space beneath Hungerford Bridge. The sunny weather brought thousands of people to the South Bank
Photograph: James Burton

NHS Reform Bill? No Thanks ... A year on from the March for the Alternative, some of the placards now refer to battles lost
Photograph: James Burton

Iain Whiteley holds the placard NHS Reform Bill? No Thanks on Hungerford Bridge. Iain's own placard No to All This Jazz is now part of the Museum of London's permanent archive. You can see his masterpiece on the Save Our Placards blog
Photograph: James Burton

On the Embankment, Laurice and Julia are stopped by a man and a woman wanting to know who is as shit as this banner
Photograph: Katja Medic

Juan Orar (furthest left), Sigrid Holmwood (second left) and friends on the Embankment where the march started last year. They carry the placards they made at a 'placard party' on the eve of the March for the Alternative
Photograph: Katja Medic

Hundreds stopped by the exhibition to relive the march or discuss the future of anti-cuts protests
Photograph: James Burton

Guy Atkins, who organised the parade, holds the placard Grandmothers Against Greed
Photograph: James Burton

Fiona Allison and Seb Wheeler choose their placards for the parade. Fiona carries a placard of David Cameron and George Osborne, while Seb opts for the pithy Turn Bankers Into Pet Food
Photograph: James Burton

Fiona Allison and Seb Wheeler are joined by Jennifer Maksymetz (right). After returning from the parade, Fiona said: 'It was great watching people's reactions. Our presence seemed less intimidating than on a normal march. There wasn't the aggressive atmosphere, because we were walking around in small groups rather than one big mass. People seemed more willing to engage, take photos and ask questions. The whole experience reminded me, and hopefully others, that a protest shouldn't just end when the march stops. These issues are big, ongoing and need to be constantly brought up and talked about, even a year down the line'
Photograph: James Burton

David Rodway, a retired philosophy lecturer, with two of his 'reusable, foldable, ecological' placards. The placards are made out of balsa and cardboard envelopes. In each envelope are a dozen different messages, allowing David to change what is on his placard mid-march. Drawing on Nietzsche, David believes 'the aim of banners is to say in 10 lines or less whatever everyone else says in a book, or doesn't say'
Photograph: James Burton

Artist Kaya Mar carries his oil painting of a naked David Cameron with Nick Clegg for a fig leaf. Behind him Mike Smith, of the TUC, holds the most popular placard of the day: Dave – Repeating Unfunny Things from the 1980s
Photograph: James Burton

George Osborne gets special treatment Photograph: PR