#143 Live Long & Never Want

143 Live Long & Never Want
#143 Live Long & Never Want
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day to my Irish friends & to the rest of you who wish you were Irish

There’s a say­ing that goes “peo­ple are either Ital­ian or wish they were.” The same goes for Irish. Maybe it’s the charm­ing per­son­al­i­ty, the won­der­ful way with words, or the dai­ly pints. Any­way, I’m glad I’m half Ital­ian, but I would­n’t mind being Irish as well. Talk about an explo­sive combination! 

That reminds me of the shirt I made years ago just to wear on St. Pad­dy’s day every year:

I’M

 
REALLY GERMAN & ITALIAN BUTLOVE

IRISH

 
WOMEN

 

I real­ly do love the Irish — men & women, young & old. Fun, wit­ty, cre­ative. They are sim­ply the best sto­ry­tellers (Walt Dis­ney was Irish) & toast mas­ters in the world. Amper­Art #143 Live Long & Nev­er Want, is the per­fect Irish toast for you, my amper­sand friend:

May you live as long as you want
&
nev­er want as long as you live.

Here’s anoth­er one that I like, mean­ing­ful & clever:

Here’s to a long life & a mer­ry one.
A quick death & an easy one.
A pret­ty girl & an hon­est one.
A cold pint & anoth­er one!

 

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

 


 Please comment here.


Production notes for #143 Live Long & Never Want:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Font: San Marco (not very Irish, is it?), Serlio

Ampersand: Serlio, modified
Credits:
Stock images: deposit​pho​tos​.com  (modified by Chaz DeSimone)
Inspiration: just lucky, I guess
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!

#104 Time & Time Again

 104 Time & Time Again
#104 TIME & TIME AGAIN
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This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
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Know anyone who screws up, arrives late, forgets something…time & time again?

Amper­Art #104, Time & Time Again, is about those peo­ple. The term could just as eas­i­ly refer to a car that just won’t start first thing in the morn­ing, or a com­put­er pro­gram that keeps crash­ing, but it usu­al­ly refers to peo­ple — & espe­cial­ly neg­a­tive instances such as always being late, for­get­ting to stop at the clean­ers, or get­ting the facts wrong. Time & Again could also have been the title, but Time & Time Again just sounds so much more wor­thy of a good rep­ri­mand or pink slip.

See the scenario?

This Amper­Art design, #104 Time & Time Again, presents a com­mon sce­nario, espe­cial­ly in the work­place. Can you fig­ure it out? Well, I know you can because only the bright­est peo­ple sub­scribe to Amper​Art​.com, and that means you. But if you’re in a hur­ry here’s the answer:

Sce­nario: In Amper­Art #104, Time & Time Again, there is a “team” of amper­sands, com­prised of 5 mem­bers: red, blue, green, yel­low, pur­ple. Each row of amper­sands rep­re­sents a group meet­ing. As you can see, all are present at every meet­ing except one of the team, Mr. Red. He shows up now & then, miss­ing most meet­ings time & time again.

Charles!

That meant I was in trou­ble. Oth­er­wise I was “Char­lie” or more recent­ly “Chaz.” I’m also called “Chuck,” “Char” & “Hey Ass­hole” but nev­er Charles, unless I’ve been a bad, bad boy. I can still hear Mom rep­ri­mand­ing me: “I’ve told you time & time again!” Was I try­ing out my new Cray­olas on the walls again? Who knows, but the phrase still rings clear in my memory.

The dreaded pink slip

Time & time again an employ­ee is late or does a lousy job, until they are “canned,” “let go,” or “giv­en the pink slip,” all of which mean you’re fired! (No, the pink slip does­n’t mean you’re giv­en the title to a new car for being late.)

"I'm what?!!"The “pink slip” has become a metonym for the ter­mi­na­tion of employ­ment in gen­er­al. Accord­ing to an arti­cle in The New York Times, the edi­tors of the Ran­dom House Dic­tio­nary have dat­ed the term to at least as ear­ly as 1910.¹

The phrase most like­ly orig­i­nat­ed in vaude­ville. When the Unit­ed Book­ing Office (estab­lished in 1906) would issue a can­cel­la­tion notice to an act, the notice was on a pink slip (“The Argot of Vaude­ville Part I” New York Times, Dec. 16, 1917, p.X7.) Anoth­er pos­si­ble ety­mol­o­gy is that many appli­ca­tions (includ­ing ter­mi­na­tion papers) are done in trip­li­cate form, with each copy on a dif­fer­ent col­or of paper, one of which is typ­i­cal­ly pink.¹

In the UK & Ire­land the equiv­a­lent of a pink slip is a P45; in Bel­gium the equiv­a­lent is known as a C4

Anoth­er theory:

The very ear­li­est exam­ple we have is where a pink slip is a note sent to a typog­ra­ph­er indi­cat­ing that he’s made a mis­take. If he got enough of them then he would be fired. Yet anoth­er inter­me­di­ate one in 1905 where a pink slip is specif­i­cal­ly a rejec­tion let­ter from a mag­a­zine. So a writer would sub­mit a sto­ry, & it would get a pink slip back, mean­ing that the sto­ry was reject­ed. So clear­ly there is some­thing going on at around this time where pink slip is being used to refer to var­i­ous kinds of rejection.²

The term is an Amer­i­can­ism. In oth­er coun­tries they have dif­fer­ent col­ors to refer to dis­missal from a job. In Ger­many the expres­sion is to get the blue let­ter. In the French mil­i­tary, you would be dis­missed with a yel­low paper, carte jaune. ²

So typog­ra­phers were giv­en the pink slip? Time & time again I’ve issued the mon­th’s Amper­Art just under the wire. Bet­ter get this edi­tion out on time before I’m canned.

Please comment here.

 


chaz sez ...

Check out the new “chaz sez” blog at Des​i​moneDesign​.com, my com­mer­cial graph­ic design web­site. It’s most­ly about design, typog­ra­phy, print­ing, pub­lish­ing & mar­ket­ing, but on occa­sion I’ll divert to a side­ways top­ic that just can’t escape my rant­i­ng & raving.


Production notes for #104 Time & Time Again:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font family: Gill Sans
Ampersand: Gill Sans
Credits:
Reference text (verbatim & edited):
¹Wikipedia https://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​P​i​n​k​_​s​l​i​p​_​(​e​m​p​l​o​y​m​ent)

²Jesse Sheidlower is an editor-​at-​large of the Oxford English Dictionary. From https://​www​.mar​ket​place​.org/​2​0​0​9​/​0​4​/​0​9​/​w​o​r​l​d​/​t​r​a​c​i​n​g​-​o​r​i​g​i​n​-​p​i​n​k​-​s​lip
You may repost the AmperArt image. 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!

#98 Fresh & Alive

 
 

#98 Fresh & Alive color of Pantone Greenery

 #98 Fresh & Alive
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.

Pantone Greenery is Color of the Year for 2017

In a stark con­trast from last year’s rather dull pas­tel Col­ors of the Year, Pan­tone has intro­duced a Fresh & Alive col­or (back to just one, too) for 2017: Green­ery 15 – 0343.

No more diaper poo

What a refresh­ing change (of dia­pers) from last year’s dull, infan­tile Col­ors of the Year for 2016, Rose Quartz & Seren­i­ty — or as I call them, Putrid Pink & Bland Blue. I can still smell the whiffs of dia­per poo from these bor­ing baby room col­ors. (No, I’ve nev­er had chil­dren. Can you guess why? And besides that, they’d grow up to be derelict I’m sure, because I would paint their room in sol­id black, my favorite col­or, & all their toys would be var­i­ous shapes of amper­sands. Of course I’d name my kids &y and &rea.)

Trees, grass & crisp green apples

Granny Smith color of Pantone GreeneryThis year it’s the fresh & alive scent of tall trees, crisp cel­ery, crunchy Granny Smith apples, tart limes, a freshly-​mown lawn & just-​plucked sprigs of mint*:

Pantone Greenery 15 – 0343

I hope this vibrant col­or catch­es on, because the fresh & alive hue will cer­tain­ly bright­en up our days, whether in print, paint, or prod­ucts. I’ll proud­ly wear a T shirt in Pan­tone Green­ery with the CMYK and RGB specs print­ed on it (54 0 100 0 /​ 132 189 0). You wouldn’t have caught me dead wear­ing Putrid Pink & Bland Blue last year.

mint color of Pantone Greenery

 

*Add this secret ingre­di­ent to your home­made meat­balls: a few chopped fresh & alive mint leaves. That’s what would sep­a­rate my mom’s deli­cious meat­balls from the rest.

 


Specs

Pan­tone Green­ery is pre­sent­ed as the sol­id back­ground in Amper­Art #98 Fresh & Alive. Here are the specs for the Pan­tone 2017 Col­or of the Year:

Green­ery 15 – 0343
Graph­ics (clos­est match): Pan­tone 376 C /​ RGB 132 189 0 /​ CMYK 54 0 100 0 /​ HEX 84BD00
The Fash­ion + Home and Plas­tic for­mu­las are slight­ly dif­fer­ent. See here.

Vis­it Pan​tone​.com for fresh & alive col­or insights.

 

chaz sez ...

Check out the new “chaz sez” blog at Des​i​moneDesign​.com, my com­mer­cial graph­ic design web­site. It’s most­ly about design, typog­ra­phy, print­ing, pub­lish­ing & mar­ket­ing, but on occa­sion I’ll divert to a side­ways top­ic that just can’t escape my rant­i­ng & raving.


Production notes for #98 Fresh & Alive:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Font: Capistrano (modified)
Ampersand: a fresh & alive squiggle
Credits:
Ladybug: istock​pho​to​.com /​ photograph by dionisvero
Apple: fit​ness​.stack​ex​change​.com
Mint: ingofwall​pa​pers​.com
You may repost the image. 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!