About AmperArt

The idea & launching of AmperArt.

ChazHead128x128Hel­lo & thanks for stop­ping by. I’m Chaz DeS­i­mone, founder of Amper­Art, fea­tur­ing “the amper­sand as fun & fab­u­lous art.”

Let­ter­ing & typog­ra­phy have been my life­long pas­sion & career. As a kid I was fas­ci­nat­ed by the squig­gly, quirky, fun & fab­u­lous sym­bol that stood for “and.” I’ve col­lect­ed amper­sand art & sculp­tures & sign let­ters & amper-​anything all my life. (Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s all gone due to a dev­as­tat­ing loss Feb­ru­ary 8, 2014.)

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In 2011, as a mar­ket­ing cam­paign for my graph­ic design busi­ness, I cre­at­ed a series of “amper­sand art” posters. After pos­i­tive feed­back, I turned it into an ongo­ing series & named it Amper­Art, plan­ning to release one piece per month as long as I can push a pen­cil & a pix­el. So far I’ve cre­at­ed over 100. Those first sev­er­al cam­paign pieces & all the oth­ers are in the Amper­Art gallery.

See the Amper­Art gallery here.

See the lat­est releas­es here.

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& nev­er miss an Amper­Art release.
It’s fun & fab­u­lous & free.

National Ampersand Day (Sept. 8)

A year or two after cre­at­ing Amper­Art, I dis­cov­ered Nation​al​Day​Cal​en​dar​.com & got the idea to “acknowl­edge & applaud the amper­sand” with its own spe­cial day. I designed the offi­cial logo & des­ig­nat­ed Sep­tem­ber 8 as Nation­al Amper­sand Day.

Why this exact date? It was appar­ent sev­er­al of the char­ac­ters in “Sep­tem­ber 8” can be clev­er­ly dis­guised as amper­sands, when the right fonts are used, like this:

Almost all ampersands!

For you typophiles, here are the fonts used for the ampersands:

Nation­al Amper­sand Day Logo:

large amper­sand: Gara­mond (Mono­type), modified
nation­al amper­sand day: Gara­mond (Adobe)
fun fab­u­lous func­tion­al: Helvetica
amper­sand fol­low­ing fun: Caslon 540
amper­sand fol­low­ing fab­u­lous: Vivaldi
amper­sand fol­low­ing func­tion­al: Baskerville

Sep­tem­ber 8:

S: Edwar­dian Script
E: akaHoggle
P: Optima*
T: Mistral
E: Sabon
M: Optima*
B: Poppl-Laudatio
E: Caslon 540
R: Optima*
8: Banco

*actu­al char­ac­ter glyph; not an amper­sand. If you find an amper­sand that resem­bles a P, M or R, let me know. —Chaz

 

Did You Know…

&  The amper­sand used to be the last let­ter of the alphabet?

&  The amper­sand is a lig­a­ture of “e” & “t”? That’s “et” in Latin, mean­ing “and.”

&  The word “amper­sand” is a slur­ring of “real words” run togeth­er over time?

&  The plus sign is actu­al­ly an ampersand?

Read about these & oth­er fun facts here.

ENJOY THE FUN & FABULOUS AMPERSAND
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Applaud the Ampersand

Cel­e­brate Nation­al Amper­sand Day by hav­ing fun with it:

&  Use lots & lots of ampersands!

&  Sub­sti­tute “&” for “and” in every­thing you write.

&  Think of syl­la­ble replace­ments such as &roid, c&elabra, b&.

&  Send friends whose names con­tain “and” a spe­cial note — &y, &rea, Alex&er, Gr&ma.

&  Design new styles of amper­sands. (Remem­ber, the amper­sand rep­re­sents the let­ters “et.”)

&  Use #Amper­sand­Day & #Amper­Art on social media.

&  Tell your friends to vis­it Amper​Art​.com.

Every Day Is Special

Vis­it Nation­al Day Cal­en­dar to see all the observed days of the year. Which one falls on your birthday?

There are cel­e­bra­tions for:

  • Nation­al Cream Puff Day
  • Nation­al Rub­ber Ducky Day
  • Nation­al Hat Day
  • Nation­al Show­er with a Friend Day
  • Nation­al Home­made Soup Day
  • Nation­al Bagel Day
  • Nation­al Hug a G.I. Day
  • Naiton­al Proof­read­ing Day
  • Nation­al Bar­bie Day
  • World Autism Aware­ness Day
  • Nation­al Peanut But­ter & Jel­ly Day
  • Nation­al Tweed Day
  • Nation­al Star Wars Day
  • Nation­al Car­toon­ists Day
  • Nation­al Bike to School Day
  • Nation­al Olive Day
  • Nation­al Go Bare­foot Day
  • Nation­al Weed Your Gar­den Day
  • Nation­al Beans ‘N’ Franks Day
  • Nation­al Coun­try Music Day
  • Nation­al Nude Day
  • Nation­al Root Beer Float Day
  • Nation­al Col­or­ing Book Day
  • Nation­al Coast Guard Day
  • Nation­al Beer Lovers Day
  • Nation­al Hug Your Boss Day
  • Nation­al Swap Ideas Day
  • Nation­al Home­made Cook­ies Day
  • Nation­al Techies Day
  • Nation­al Mad Hat­ter Day
  • Nation­al Par­ents as Teach­ers Day
  • Nation­al Cap­puc­ci­no Day
  • Nation­al Cook For Your Pets Day
  • Nation­al Vio­lin Day
  • Nation­al Card Play­ing Day
  • Nation­al Cham­pagne Day

…and hun­dreds more.

Order a Nation­al Day Wall Cal­en­dar or sub­scribe to their free announce­ment emails & nev­er miss one of your favorite Nation­al Days again. Find your favorite days to cel­e­brate at Nation​al​Day​Cal​en​dar​.com.


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