The Origin of the Serf

If the above title did not at least raise a smile, then either you didn’t read it properly, or you don’t know Father Catich’s splendid book “The Origin of the Serif” – required reading for everyone who loves Roman Capitals. Anyway, I have always enjoyed both the visual and verbal aspects of the Serif. It invites puns like “I shot the Serif” and evokes pictures of a Typographic Tyrant “The Serif of Nottingham” who oppresses his local villagers. Historically villagers could still come and go, using their feet to move on from the depredations of the Serif, but when individuality is stripped away, and the “I” is removed from a “Serif” then one is left with a poor “Serf” – someone whose feet are tied to the land.
Personally, I think we are currently developing a new class of serf – and I don’t mean all those people who serf the net. These serfs are tied to their jobs and cannot move because mortgages, commitments etc etc nail them to the spot. They may be materially richer than their medieval counterparts, but they are just as disempowered – slaves to consumerist expectations. So here is a piece of work that plays with that lost “I” and at least turns part of it into an exclamation mark.