Northbank was founded in 1998, by Maria Bez, Simon Cryer and Robert Shaw. Broadly, a mix of two slate-grey northern Englishmen and a more exuberant, colourful Italian. We like to think that over time we’ve gained a fair amount of experience and insight, so to mark this milestone we’ve drawn on Maria’s family upbringing and our combined love of type to produce this little book of proverbs, passed down through the generations in their very particular dialects of Sicily and Belluno.
Why did we focus on Italy and not Yorkshire? No contest – the Italian language is rich in these expressions of popular wisdom and somehow ‘non dispiace invecchiare, è un privilegio negato a molti’ sounded more poetic than ‘see all, ’ear all, say nowt. Eat all, sup all, pay nowt. An’ if th’ivver does owt for nowt, allus do it for thissen.’
The 80pp, three colour (green, white and red) book is being produced as a limited edition for clients and friends, with a small number available to buy here for £10 (inc. p&p). Books will be mailed at the beginning of February 2014. Finally, to whoever said ‘red and green should never be seen’, we apologise. (Now sold out)
A little book of Italian proverbs
