S’amuser Avec Le Français

I have been promising this project for a long time and without further ado, here it is.

I wasn’t the best French student in high school, but I was able to pick up a few French sayings that have stayed with me throughout the years. If you know me well enough, you’ve probably heard me utter the occasional “Je ne sais pas,” which in my opinion, sounds much more sophisticated than “I don’t know.” Although I have never had the need to learn the language in full, I do enjoy dabbling in it now and then. In one of my moments of dabbling, I got the idea to screen print a set of French idioms. S’amuser Avec Le Français translates into To have fun with French. Amusement is the essence of this project.

This project is a set of five prints, each showcasing a different French idiom and each with it’s own distinctive flourish. The flourishes are inspired by the cover of this 1959 Dictionary we picked up awhile back. The prints measure 5.5″x4.25″. In gold ink, the phrases are screen printed on five different colors of French’s 100 lb cover stock. In all, there are 170 sets. Each set is wrapped in parchment paper and sealed with wax bearing the RageHaus monogram. The back of the package includes literal translations, which may seem familiar because these particular French idioms have similar English counterparts. Overall, my goal with this project was to create a playful juxtaposition between the decadent visual elements of the prints and the literal translations of the idioms. So, I welcome you to learn a little French, enjoy a touch of decadence and snicker at the absurd. Look for them in our Etsy store.

A CERTAIN JE NE SAIS QUOI

Linguistically and typographically, I find French to be a beautiful language. I am particularly fond of the cedilla (ç). There is something so visually playful about the accent dangling off the base of the c. For this project, I knew I wanted to use French sayings and after some thinking I decided to use French idioms. Idiomatic expressions are one of the many wonderful quirks found in every culture’s language and I thought they would serve this project well.

After deciding to use French idioms, I scoured some sources and was delighted when I came across this site, which is run by two fabulous women, Katia and Kyliemac. This section of their site discusses the proper use of some rather interesting French phrases, a lot of which are idioms. This was a great source of inspiration but also gave me a great deal of information pertaining to things I needed to consider when using these idioms. It is a wonderful podcast and you’ll be hooked after a few episodes.

MEET THE CARDS

J’ai D’autres Chats à Fouetter ::: I Have Other Cats To Whip

Excité Comme Une Puce ::: Excited As A Flea

Bête Comme Chou ::: Dumb Like Cabbage

Quand Les Poules Auront Des Dents ::: When The Chickens Have Some Teeth

Chanter Comme Une Casserole ::: Sing Like A Casserole

SOME SNAGS ALONG THE WAY

This is a project that has been a long time coming and I originally thought it would not require as much time as it has. Needless to say, I have run into several snags worth mentioning.

First, I was experimenting with the use of gold opaque ink, a material I haven’t used before. Derek and I learned with the sketch book covers that opaque ink has a much thicker viscosity than plain ol’ ink. This means that you have to pull the ink through the screen with more force. With the gold, I not only had to do this, but I had to pull several passes to build up the opacity. So for example, fifty prints meant approximately 150 pulls. This was time consuming and pushed back our expected deadline.

A second snag, was my inability to proof text. I thought I had triple checked all of the idioms, but I had one sneak through missing an s, a lousy s. Rather than scrapping the cards, I did manage to drop an s back into the print. Of course this was a complicated task that had the expected casualties. It was a lengthy and unbearable process that I never want to speak of again.

I hope there aren’t any other problems, but if you spot one, kindly tell me. I do enjoy learning the tidbits of a language and I will just chalk it up to my inexperience. But for the most part, I hope this project fairs well and everyone enjoys the prints.

You can view more pictures of this project on our Flickr account.