Take the Proverbial

Take the Proverbial is a fun and interesting print project from Edinburgh-based freelance graphic designer Gill McColl. Starting life as a small student project for her final graduation shown, the series of prints features some beautifully designed 'modern proverbs for the modern world'. These include 'When life hands you lemons, crack open the gin' and 'History retweets itself'.

"Although I am inspired by the digital world we live in on a daily basis, I also love traditional print production methods and vintage type, especially letterpress," says McColl. "I thought that it would be interesting to take traditional print processes and employ them in a modern way to reflect the new proverbs."

The prints themselves employ a mixture of hand drawn elements and retro-inspired typefaces from Veer. "I also used Illustrator to recreate traditional letterpress and wood type effects," says the designer. She continues: "I created and sourced around 30 different modern proverbs – I chose those which I thought I could make visually interesting and made a short list of 10 to start with. Typographically, I was inspired by the beautiful calligraphy of Seb Lester, Kate Forrester and Jessica Hische. I also spent weeks looking at vintage adverts and dusty old type catalogues."

McColl used a mixture of polymer plate letterpress, gocco and Riso printing on the project.

Prints start at £18. Find out more here.