The Serif Fairy meets a frog (who’s actually a P and a Q set in Shelley Andante Script)

The Serif Fairy is in a bit of a typographical predicament. It’s nothing to do with her kerning, her leading, or even her italicised “O” for a head – it’s, in fact, far worse. She’s gone and lost one of her wings and can no longer perform her magic…

A new picture book by René Siegried (translated by Joel Mann) follows the Serif Fairy’s quest to find her missing wing. And on the way, she encounters a wondrous array of landscapes, including…

the trees of Garamond Forest…

…the modernist expanse of Futura City…

…(where there are trucks and cranes…

…and some rather tasty mopeds)…

…and finally the delightful Lake Shelley

The charming tale employs just four typefaces to create all the pictures in the story: Garamond, Zentenar Fraktur, Futura Book and Shelley Andante Script. And it even shows you how most of the buildings, vehicles, trees and animals are constructed.

It also reminded us of the great limited edition set of postcards (called Typefaces You Won’t Recognise) that designer Paul Belford made for London’s Type Museum a few years ago. Remember these?

Type: Five Lines Pica No. 2; Anglo Saxon; Granby

Type: Figaro; Primer Two Line Ancient; Eight Lines Elongated Sans Series No. 3

Type: Eight Lines French Antique No. 1; Seven Lines Open No. 1; Doric No. 3

Type: Eight Lines Thorncliffe No. 2; Expanded Grotesque; No. 120 Sans Serif Old Style

Fantastic type faces.

Cover of The Serif Fairy

The Serif Fairy: Explorations in the World of Letters is published by Mark Batty and available at £9.99.