I've heard it's Spring but one could never guess that with the cold grey sky and patter of rain outside. To counteract this dreariness, I present a pretty picture of the mountains with a haiku on Spring by Matsuo Basho. Basho was a Japanese poet recognized for his simple, natural haikus. The ampersand is in Cooper Std.
What would a month of ampersand be without a little history? The long-short of it is that ampersand is a corruption of the phrase "and per se and". The Scots and Scottish English name for & is epershand, derived from "et per se and", with the same meaning. Through folk etymology it has been claimed that Andre-Marie Ampere used the symbol in his widely read publications, and that people began calling the new shape "Ampere's and".
*all of this thanks to Wikipedia
No matter how this gorgeous thing came to be, there's one indisputable fact. It's always been beautiful.
This image is a juxtaposition of so many different different things. It's a representation of history (one of the newspapers featured here is over 93 years old), style, color (pow!), and of course, typography. Specifically the ampersand.
I purchased the Aechen Medium font for a recent project and fell in love with the ampersand immediately. From far away, it's sturdy and bold, but up close there are delightful curves that only add interest and delicacy to it's resolute shape. Lovely.
Ever since we returned from the UK, my Design a Day performance has been spotty. For some reason I've had a barrage of side projects pop up and they've been consuming most of my "after work work". I'm very excited about the project I just completed because it involves my dad, food, and a food company. Unfortunately, at this stage it's still confidential so I'm not allowed to post any designs. In lieu of a gorgeous ampersand or new work, I'm posting a few images I've been storing in my Found Images folder on my desktop. Nearly anything that catches my eye goes there. I've done my best to attribute each design - I apologize in advance for anything I've missed.
Lovely work by Derek J Hunt
Gorgeous Danish stamp - unsure of the designer
Draphic design poster by Lunchbreath
Packaging by I Love Dust
And it continues. A tribute to one of the most diverse and beautiful glyphs of a typeface or font.
With a little help from the ah-mazing photographer Jimmy Backius I've created a little springtime ampersand love.
