Category: brown

#49 Hammer & Nail

Chaz DeSimone 7 Comments
#49 Hammer & Nail
Click image to down­load full-​size print suit­able for framing.

Hap­py Labor Day Weekend.

Ham­mer & Nail, #49 in the Amper­Art series, hon­ors all of us who labor for a liv­ing. This edi­tion, Ham­mer & Nail, pays spe­cial trib­ute to those jour­ney­men who build hous­es to give us shel­ter & offices to help us work — like my broth­er Rob and my friend Mike. Rob­bie, I love you like a friend and Mike, I love you like a brother.

CLICK HERE to print & frame a gallery-​quality print—it’s fab­u­lous & free. Look at these ideas: Fram­ing & Dis­play­ing Your Amper­Art Print

chazsezLOGO-85x64I hope you enjoy your work as much as I do mine. My tool­bag con­tains sev­er­al graph­ics pro­grams, a mon­i­tor & scan­ner, some left­over designers markers from the pre-​digital era, an Xac­to knife which I still use on occa­sion & of course my box of 120 Cray­ola crayons which is always right in front of me. (My favorite Cray­ola col­or is blue-green.)

Some­times I could use a ham­mer, though, when the com­put­er crash­es. On the oth­er hand, it feels good when I nail a logo on the first try.

PRODUCTION NOTES
Orig­i­nal dimen­sions: 20″ x 30″
Pro­gram: Illustrator
Font: Impact (mod­i­fied)
Amper­sand: 8 gauge 16D common
Back­ground: graph​ic​stock​.com

Thanks for sub­scrib­ing to Amper­Art. Please invite your ampersand-​fan friends & col­leagues to sub­scribe – tell them it’s fab­u­lous & free.

#8 Hide & Seek

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment

Click to download full-size poster

#8 Hide & Seek
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.
.1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005…

Ready or not, here I come!

Back in the old days we’d be get­ting antsy right about one-​thousand-​twenty, one-​thousand-​twenty-​one, one-thousand-twenty-two…

But today we can just pass the time tex­ting or play­ing a game (until you score and your “WOOHOO!” gives your hid­ing place away).

I am not a fan of oranges and browns, so I super­sat­u­rat­ed these col­ors almost to the point of pop art. I find the orig­i­nal image far more relax­ing; it does­n’t con­vey the play­ful­ness of hide & seek, nor of autumn. How­ev­er, the pat­tern in the bark is fascinating.

Now go hide while I start counting…

listen up!1960 BC

That’s “Before Com­put­ers” and “Before Cell­phones.” Hide & Seek (no bat­ter­ies required). Met­al skates (no hel­mets, no kneepads). When we scraped our knuck­les on Flexy-​Riders, got soaked skid­ding down our Slip & Slides (see my AmperBr& piece on that one), or sim­ply played check­ers (with a real board and real play­ing pieces). Sim­ple, fun times, but I do enjoy test­ing my skills with the Lumos­i­ty app.

Production notes for #8 Hide & Seek:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Photoshop
Font: Souvenir
Ampersand: Souvenir (well, whatever’s cheating & peeking)
Credits:
Photos: unknown; tried my best to find the image sources of this early AmperArt image but whoever I “borrowed” them from most likely “borrowed” them from somebody else. Anyway, the composite is heavily altered from the original. If you’re the photographer and would like credit, just let me know. 
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.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

#7 In & Out

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment

#7 In & Out

Amper­Art #7: In & Out
.

Hats, helmets and hardhats off to the workforce!

Whether we work 9 to 5, part time, grave­yard, free­lance, or own our own For­tune 500 com­pa­ny, we real­ly do clock in and out. Every moment we’re dri­ving to work, dri­ving a nail, answer­ing email, court­ing a client, or just day­dream­ing about an inven­tion, we are “clocked in.”

And every moment we are “clocked in” we are adding to the val­ue of some­body’s exis­tence, whether through a prod­uct, a pro­fes­sion, or serv­ing a blue plate spe­cial (like my mom did, and always with a smile).

If you are “clocked out” this week­end, enjoy the Labor Day fes­tiv­i­ties. And if you are work­ing, know that your con­tri­bu­tion to what makes this coun­try tick is tru­ly appreciated.

listen up!Work, work, work

Every sin­gle thing I’m touch­ing, look­ing at or lis­ten­ing to right now was made by some­one, or most like­ly hun­dreds of peo­ple, who trad­ed their time, tal­ent, exper­tise, and hard labor for a paycheck.

This mon­i­tor, for exam­ple: the min­ers for the phos­pho­rs; the prod­uct design­ers; the engi­neers; the oil­men who drill for the plas­tic; the sol­der­ers; the print­ers for the UL stick­er; the book­keep­ers, ship­pers, and truck dri­vers; the elec­tri­cal con­trac­tors who sup­ply the pow­er; the tech sup­port; and yes, the graph­ic design­ers who cre­at­ed the pack­ag­ing, adver­tis­ing and instruc­tion manual.
I was lis­ten­ing to an inter­view by the late Bud­dy Rich, jazz drum­mer. When asked if he enjoys his work as a drum­mer, he replied, “Work? What work? I play!”

I love what I do for “work.” Design­ing logos, books, ads and pack­ag­ing; brain­storm­ing with clients; and the thrill of see­ing the first piece off the press is more excit­ing than an exot­ic vaca­tion (some­times just as expen­sive when there’s a typo).

I hope you enjoy what you do, what­ev­er it is. If you don’t, do some­thing else. We do have that choice. If you need some inspi­ra­tion please con­tact me. I am grate­ful that I get to enjoy the earn­ing part of earn­ing a liv­ing, and I’m hap­py to share how it’s pos­si­ble for any­one else.

I love work so much, in fact, I’m going to work on my tan at the pool this Labor Day weekend.

Hap­py Labor Day!