Abécédaire means “alphabet primer”—the ideal subject for a typographic cover design, I thought at first. But in the end, I built the cover around this little Zeppelin illustration that was my favorite, and that you can see in the middle. The academic connotation of the word “Abécédaire” inspired the school-like design of the book. The handwriting on the inside covers was provided by the illustrator’s son David, then six years old, who refused to write the alphabet in lower case and insisted on using a terribly damaged piece of onion paper.