Category: Birthday

#140 Love & Light

Chaz DeSimone 2 Comments
—140 Love & Light
#140 Love & Light
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Happy Birthday, Diane

Amper­Art #140 is inspired by a gift from my friend, a real­ly cool amper­sand sculp­ture that lights up. She signs her name with the words “Love & Light” which gave this piece its title. But tru­ly, Diane is the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of love & light. The back­ground is also inspired by her, as she is always admir­ing cloud for­ma­tions. I am issu­ing Amper­Art #140 Love & Light on Diane L. Donohue’s 60th Birth­day, August 6, 2019.

Her BIG 6‑OH is a real­ly big deal because Diane was not sup­posed to live past 58. At least that’s what the doc­tors said. More about that later.

60 Smart & Strong

Diane L. Dono­hue is the cre­ator of 60 Smart & Strong, a series of pod­casts & the web­site to inspire women & men who are 60 & bet­ter to live their lives to the fullest…like Diane does.

I met Diane less than a year ago (seems I’ve known her all my life, she’s that kind of soul) at a group of aspir­ing artists & writ­ers where I was offer­ing my ser­vices pro bono which I do a cou­ple times a year. She took me up on my offer to design a logo & a web­site. Here is the orig­i­nal sketch, but before I had the chance to refine it too much, she request­ed that I keep it pret­ty much the same, as she likes things “per­fect­ly imperfect.”

Her web­site, 60s​mar​tand​strong​.com, is still being devel­oped but it is live if you want to take a look. (Please sub­scribe & you will be the first to see her series of snap­py, inspir­ing videos.) If noth­ing else you will enjoy her list of “Diane-​isms” to enlight­en & bright­en your life.

Here are just a few:

No excus­es = No regrets

Healthy Thoughts = Healthy Actions

Grat­i­tude is a mag­ic wand that turns every­thing you have…into every­thing you want.

Your bat­ter­ies are in your feet.

You’re not sweat­ing, dar­ling; you’re detoxing!

If you want more ener­gy, eat more ener­gy foods.

I don’t diet, I just don’t buy it.

When life gets mental…you get physical!

If it should­n’t be, it would­n’t be.

The C word

Accord­ing to the doc­tors, Diane was not going to live past August, 2018 — one year ago. But you wouldn’t know any­thing is wrong if you met this amaz­ing lady.  Always smil­ing, upbeat, laugh­ing, giv­ing, she bright­ens every space around her — kind of like that amper­sand lamp she gave me! Diane walks her talk, eat­ing healthy & con­stant­ly exer­cis­ing, teach­ing a strength & car­dio class no less, sev­er­al days a week. All while being ful­ly aware she’s liv­ing with stage 4 breast can­cer, dis­cov­ered six years ago. I have nev­er known any­one so full of love & light as Diane. She’s amaz­ing, embrac­ing life to the fullest & accept­ing death as some­thing just meant to be.

(I refuse to believe she won’t be around anoth­er 10 or 20 years. This world needs peo­ple like her to keep them lov­ing & laugh­ing & smil­ing — and if Diane were to edit this she would add eat­ing right & exercising!)

Happy BIG 6‑OH Diane! 

Wish­ing you Love & Light for many years to come.

 Please comment here.

chaz sez

Want more?
Rants & raves most­ly about design, some­times about the universe.
An occa­sion­al bit of use­ful advice.
des​i​monedesign​.com/​c​h​a​z​-​sez

Production notes for #140 Love & Light:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Photoshop
Font: Rockwell
Ampersand: a special gift from a special friend
Credits:
Clouds image: deposit​pho​tos​.com
Note: “&” replaces “and” in most or all text, including quotations, headlines & titles.
You may repost the image & article. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.

An excel­lent com­pa­ny, prod­uct or ser­vice needs brand­ing & graph­ic design that is prop­er, per­fect & professional.
Please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

Why is SEPTEMBER 8 National Ampersand Day?

Chaz DeSimone 1 Comment

National Ampersand Day logo

“Can we spell it with ampersands?”

Prob­a­bly no oth­er hol­i­day or obser­vance day’s date has been deter­mined with the par­tic­u­lar cri­te­ria as Nation­al Amper­sand Day. That cri­te­ria, quite sim­ply, was “Can we spell it with ampersands?”

The word “SEPTEMBER” and the numer­al “8” were select­ed specif­i­cal­ly because, using a cer­tain type­style for each amper­sand, you can “spell out” the date with amper­sands, as shown here, where­in each amper­sand resem­bles the char­ac­ter it stands in for. 


Ampersand Day logotype

 

The amper­sands here are used much the same as pic­tographs or hiero­glyph­ics, which sim­ply means “rec­og­niz­able pic­tures of the things rep­re­sent­ed.” This has ren­dered a unique, visu­al­ly descrip­tive logo­type, spelling out of the des­ig­nat­ed date of Nation­al Amper­sand Day. (The offi­cial Nation­al Amper­sand Day logo, which is cir­cu­lar, is shown a few para­graphs down.)

For you typophiles, here are the fonts & fam­i­lies used in the Sep­tem­ber 8 logotype:

 

Ampersand Day font callouts

 

Aside from three char­ac­ters, each amper­sand in a spe­cif­ic font resem­bles a let­ter and the num­ber. Just a glance tells you it says “Sep­tem­ber.” The “8” might take a moment or two. Only the P, M & R don’t fit in. But if one of you sharp-​witted amper­sand fans has a suit­able idea for any of those let­ters, drop it in the sug­ges­tion box. 

While we’re at it — for you extreme typophiles & amper­fans — here are the font fam­i­lies used in the offi­cial Nation­al Amper­sand Day logo:

National Ampersand Day logolarge 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

 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Wish someone special a
HAPPY AMPERSAND BIRTHDAY
on September 8

Happy Ampersand Birthday

Do you know a Birthday Boy or a Birthday Girl whose special day falls on National Ampersand Day, September 8? 

Send them this link to their own Birthday Page featuring the stylish greeting you see above:

amper​art​.com/​h​a​p​p​y​-​b​i​r​t​h​d​a​y​-​a​m​p​e​r​s​a​n​d​-​day

 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 

More about the ampersand

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
SUBSCRIBE HERE

 

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.

&  Send any­one whose birth­day is Sep­tem­ber 8 this Hap­py Birth­day link: 
      amper​art​.com/​h​a​p​p​y​-​b​i​r​t​h​d​a​y​-​a​m​p​e​r​s​a​n​d​-​day

 

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