Most of my sayings start life as something I've said out loud at entirely the wrong moment. Usually with a glass in my hand. Usually followed by someone saying, "You should put that on a T-shirt."
I don't do T-shirts. I do prints. Here's how one gets from my mouth to your wall.
1. It starts with a line
The whole collection started with a song I wrote, Lipstick, Wine & Friends. It's about the friends who turn up with lipstick on and wine in hand when life's gone a bit wrong. Once I'd written it, the lines kept coming.
They come from real life. A friend crying in the loos at four o'clock and looking like an icon by seven. Someone saying she's staying in, in full make-up.
Let me be clear about one thing: the sayings are mine. Every one.
2. Setup… punchline
Almost every saying has the same shape. A setup, then a punchline. "Heart broke…" (pause, sad face) "…Outfit didn't."
That little pause matters. It's where you nod along thinking it's going to be a sad one, and then it isn't. So on the print, the setup sits small and the punchline is big, bold and slightly smug.
Then there's the full stop. On the Editorial prints it's a red full stop, because some sentences need finishing properly. Sip, Smile, Suppress… gets a red ellipsis instead, because nobody has ever actually finished suppressing anything.
3. Four ways to say it
Every saying comes in four styles, because your friends aren't all the same person (thank God).
- Editorial: an elegant italic setup, a bold black serif punchline and that red full stop, on warm cream. Classic.
- Bold Modern: big, tall, confident letters. Says it loudly.
- Dark Glam: moody blacks and golds. Very bar cart.
- Playful Unhinged: a scrawly handwritten setup, a big punchline and a lipstick kiss. Cheeky and colourful.
The designs are typography, not pictures. They're real typefaces, set and spaced and fiddled with until the words land right. The print designs aren't AI-made. The print you receive is the design itself.
Have a look at the same saying in all four: Wine… Knows Too Much in Editorial, Bold Modern, Dark Glam and Playful Unhinged. Same joke, four completely different personalities. A bit like my friends after a second bottle.
4. The bit where I fuss
Then I stare at it. For ages. Is "Knows Too Much" funnier on two lines or three? Does the full stop look smug enough? Is that gap big enough for the pause? Nobody else would notice. I notice.
5. Printed when you order it
Nothing is printed until you order it. Then your print is made on museum-quality art paper with archival inks, in A4, A3 or 50 × 70 cm. You can have it unframed, or framed in black, white, natural or antique gold.
Printing usually takes 1–3 working days. Then it's sent out with free UK tracked delivery. No warehouse full of unsold prints. Just yours, made for you.
6. Then it's yours
That's the bit I love most. A line I said over a glass of wine ends up on someone's hallway wall, making a stranger laugh. If yours ends up somewhere good, please tag me @ailfsworld so I can have a nosy.
Mix and match while you're there: buy 2 prints and save 10%, buy 3 and save 20%. Have a look at all the prints.
Susan x
