Types of language

We recently spent four days in Berlin for our Construct field trip to Erik Spiekermann’s letterpress workshop, p98a. When not choosing typefaces and inking rollers, we spent time getting lost in Kreuzberg and Neukölln and delving into German culture.

Other than it's rich heritage in engineering, castles and sausage, Germany has a pretty creative list of expressions and idioms that we've recently discovered are even more hilarious when translated directly into English. At Construct, we love a creative distortion or disruption of sorts, especially when it occurs naturally.  When passed through the Anglo Saxon filter, some of these are absolute linguistic gold. There are hundreds, but here are a few favourites that carry a certain artistic poignancy.