Dear Helen

What fonts shall I use in my picture book?

Hi there,

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Hi Helen, I’m currently working through my first picture book commission, ( all thanks to the Good Ship Picture Book course!) can you recommend fonts and size of font you recommend for picture books? Thanks! Erin

This is a juicy question, thanks

Erin’s Substack

Good news! This isn’t something you will need to worry about. Your publisher will give you an editor and an art director or designer to work with. Together (ideally) you will make a nice tight team of creative minds, all with their own area of expertise, but one goal in mind: to make the best book you can possibly make.

Of course you can bat around font ideas and can make suggestions. I know what I like when I see it, and might waggle a nice typeface in my designer’s face and say ‘I love that! Can I have something like that?’ And they might say, ‘No flippin way!’ Or ‘Yes you are a genius Helen!’ But it’s not my area of expertise so ultimately I leave that in the safe hands of my designers.

When I make my rough drawings I usually sketch out a box where I imagine the text will go. And on my next round of roughs the publisher might suggest a line of text move to another space to make the story flow better.

They will, at some stage during the process, suggest a type they like and ask for my opinion. And in that way decisions are made collaboratively. But ultimately the art director/ designer is the one who does the type setting.

Early days in my career when I made pre-school books I liked to draw all of my text by hand to give it that friendly homemade feel. I drew each letter by hand on tracing paper and stuck them all together with magic tape. It took me ages and was really fiddly, but worth it.

My publisher have also made my handwriting into a font before, that was fun. But if you ask me to choose a font for my new book I would honestly be a bit lost.

As artists and illustrators we have a good design eye, but most of us haven’t put in the hours to be able to lay out or own type. That’s because illustrating picture books is a skill in itself that takes years of dedication and practice. We can’t do everything! Just as our editor or designer might not be best placed to illustrate the book.

Thank goodness for picture book designers I say!

Love Helenx

P.S. A shout out to a few of my art directors / designers: Louise Jackson, Deirdre McDermott and Zoë Tucker. Three of the best.