#181 Small Cheer & Great Welcome

181 Small Cheer & Great Welcome
#181 Small Cheer & Great Welcome
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.

Shakespeare said it best

Small cheer & great welcome make a merry feast.

This quote from William Shake­speare seems to be a per­fect Amper­Art phrase for Thanks­giv­ing. I’m not so sure it has such a rel­e­vant mean­ing in its orig­i­nal con­text (“The Com­e­dy of Errors”, Act 3 scene 1) but it sure does fit nice­ly as a piece of typo­graph­ic art with the amper­sand turkey as part of the quote.

Colorful words inspire colorful illustration

Wild turkey

As for “great wel­come,” that term inspired the col­or­ful feath­ers on the “amper­turkey.” The orig­i­nal illus­tra­tion (of which I used only the feath­ers) had a sub­dued palette of browns and grays. I start­ed adding col­ors to the feath­ers, then real­ized “great wel­come” should be just that: great! Inclu­sive of every­one — all col­ors, all sex­es, all shapes & sizes. All reli­gions as well, as Thanks­giv­ing is non-​denominational; that’s one rea­son I like this hol­i­day (besides the food). So I did a lit­tle research & start­ed over with the col­ors, includ­ing as many of the world’s skin tones as I could find & hope­ful­ly all the var­i­ous sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion flag col­ors. Feath­ers are all dif­fer­ent sizes to begin with, so that part was easy. 

Small cheer” in the play’s dia­logue refers to the food & bev­er­age being served at the gath­er­ing, only to be upstaged by the cama­raderie of the peo­ple present. But let’s be hon­est: there’s no small spread & lack of liba­tion at Thanksgiving! 


Thankfulness cards for your table & other uses

Table setting with AmperArt Thankfulness Cards

My friend Jo has told me sev­er­al times that she enjoys print­ing & mak­ing Amper­Art place set­ting cards for the din­ner table. That inspired me to cre­ate a new design this year (pre­vi­ous cards were issued in 2011 & 2015), & it’s one where you can write your own Amper­Art phrase (see ideas below). 

These can be placed as tra­di­tion­al din­ner table set­tings & made into oth­er things such as greet­ing cards (with some cre­ative cut­ting & glu­ing) & gift tags.

There are two styles you can down­load: one bright & col­or­ful, sym­bol­iz­ing the inclu­sion of all col­ors & ori­en­ta­tions of the world’s peo­ples; & a sub­tle col­or scheme clos­er to a wild turkey. (I pre­fer the bright & col­or­ful ver­sion.) There’s an instruc­tion sheet you can down­load as well, detail­ing how to cut & fold the cards. 

Choose your style & download

There are four cards to a sheet. Print on stan­dard letter-​size or A4 sheets of card­stock (or reg­u­lar heavy paper).

Instructions

  1. Down­load the pdf file in your choice of design: full spec­trum col­or or sub­tle color.
  2. You can also down­load the cut­ting & fold­ing guide or just refer to image below.
  3. Cut along the red dashed lines. The ver­ti­cal & hor­i­zon­tal lines sep­a­rate the sheet into 4 cards. The curved cut lines allow the turkey feath­ers to pop out above the fold. You can cut along the arc as shown below, or for more detail, cut along the feath­er shapes, as shown in the pho­to above. An X‑acto knife works best.
  4. Score to make fold­ing easy & clean. Score along the blue dot­ted lines as shown in the guide. This is where the sol­id pur­ple meets the sol­id white on the print­ed cards. Do not score through the turkey feath­ers — you don’t want to fold these. A blunt instru­ment works best for scor­ing, such as a wood­en stir stick or paper clip. You can use any­thing that is not sharp enough to cut through the card.
  5. Fold the card over only along the blue dot­ted lines. Do not fold the feath­ers; leave them flat to extend above the fold. 
  6. Pinch the fold to keep it in place. Addi­tion­al­ly, you can use tape or string under­neath to keep the card from unfolding.
  7. Write your text to the left & right of the amper­sand. See some ideas below.

You can use these cards for oth­er things too, besides seat­ing place hold­ers. Place them around your liv­ing & work spaces to remind your­self and oth­ers of what we can be thank­ful for. Place one on your boss’s or co-​worker’s desk. Or on your teacher’s desk. Use them as note cards (write some­thing inside), or use just the front to paste onto a larg­er fold­ed card as a greet­ing card. Use them as gift tags. Car­ry some with you to fill in & hand out.

Thankful for ampersands & more ampersands 

Here are some ideas for your amper­sand “Thank­ful for…” phrases:

  • Peo­ple’s names & their out­stand­ing virtues: Uncle Gil & always will­ing to help out
  • Cou­ple’s names: Mike & Vio­la
  • Things that make you hap­py: my dog & cats, books & danc­ing, flow­ers & but­ter­flies
  • The neces­si­ties: food & shel­ter, friends & fam­i­ly, love & light
  • I per­son­al­ly am thank­ful for: artis­tic tal­ent & loy­al subscribers

Have a very happy Thanksgiving
full of small magnificent cheer
& great welcome. 


(Sorry for the edit, Bill.)


Production notes for #181 Small Cheer & Great Welcome:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font: Garamond
Ampersand: Garamond
Credits:
Illustration: deposit​pho​tos​.com (modified by Chaz DeSimone)
Background: deposit​pho​tos​.com
Quote: Shakespeare
Other credits as noted
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 suitable for printing & framing, click on the image.

Chaz DeS­i­mone is the cre­ator of Amper­Art and own­er of Des­i­mone Design. He was adding ser­ifs to let­ters when he was just a lit­tle brat scrib­bling on walls. Now he’s a big brat and his entire career is design, so long as each project requires the most sophis­ti­cat­ed, log­i­cal, cap­ti­vat­ing results. Con­tact him at chaz@​desimonedesign.​com to dis­cuss your project, pick his brain, or just talk shop.


Chaz sez...

Who banned the ampersand?

Whoever thought up the syntax for Universal Resource Locators (URLs) was 100% coder & 0% copywriter. No foresight whatsoever. We can’t even use common punctuation in a URL except for the hyphen & underscore. It sure makes all the AmperArt URLs ugly & hard to understand—no ampersands allowed!
This is just one of the rants on my blog, chaz sez.
Rants & raves mostly about design, sometimes about the universe.
An occasional bit of useful advice.
Read the blog:

des​i​monedesign​.com/​c​h​a​z​-​sez
Desimone Design
Desimone Design

#133 Death & Destruction

#133 Death & Destruction
#133 Death & Destruction
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.

This piece is an expression of empathy for those who lost everything in the recent natural disasters.

One week ago fam­i­lies across Amer­i­ca sat down to their tra­di­tion­al Thanks­giv­ing din­ner. Some were elab­o­rate, oth­ers sim­ple, but most were savored in a warm, cozy home at a famil­iar table.

But not for those whose homes were destroyed in recent fires and hur­ri­canes. Many shared Thanks­giv­ing din­ner with strangers in shel­ters and even tents. Some made new friends. Some reflect­ed on how their lives had been over­tak­en by osten­ta­tious sur­round­ings. But none were at home.

Oth­ers were too con­cerned about miss­ing loved ones to par­take in Thanks­giv­ing din­ner. Not to men­tion where they were going to live, how to sur­vive, the deep pang of loss — homes, fur­nish­ings, valu­able pos­ses­sions and even cash that was stashed away in their homes. In many cas­es, liveli­hood, as com­pa­nies they worked for, or their home offices, were also destroyed.

The most dev­as­tat­ing and excru­ci­at­ing loss was that of loved ones: par­ents, chil­dren, sib­lings, rel­a­tives, friends, and pets.

At Thanks­giv­ing, no less.

It is hard to com­pre­hend. It is sad. 


Concept

I cre­at­ed this piece to empathize with those less for­tu­nate. I felt it might bring clo­sure to some, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a mor­bid piece. Maybe reflec­tive. I just felt it and cre­at­ed it.

The col­ors and effects I chose for the sen­sa­tions in the fall­en amper­sand rep­re­sent fire, water and seis­mic activ­i­ty, all nat­ur­al forces. It’s iron­ic that ele­ments such as fire, wind and water can be tremen­dous­ly ben­e­fi­cial and also ter­ri­fy­ing­ly disastrous.


Comfort

I don’t know what to say to help the vic­tims of these recent dis­as­ters or past dis­as­ters, as some things are nev­er for­got­ten, nev­er recov­ered, for­ev­er mourned as a void that’s deep as one’s soul. If you have any words of com­fort please leave them here.

Here’s my clos­ing thought: 

Does­n’t nat­ur­al dis­as­ter cause enough death & destruc­tion? Why does man add to it with war and crime?

 Please comment here.


Production notes for #133 Death & Destruction:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font: Helvetica Ultra Compressed (modified)

Ampersand: Helvetica Ultra Compressed (modified)
Credits:
Background image: deposit​pho​tos​.com
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!

#88 Brats & Beer

 

88-brats-beer
#88 Brats & Beer
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.

Grüß Gott!

That’s “Hel­lo!” in Bavar­i­an. Lit­er­al­ly, in a for­mal sense, it means “salute to God.”

My broth­er Rob sug­gest­ed Amper­Art #88 Brats & Beer for Okto­ber­fest. Danke, Bro!

In Bavaria, where it orig­i­nat­ed, Okto­berbest is actu­al­ly cel­e­brat­ed on the third Sat­ur­day in Sep­tem­ber, and con­tin­ues to the first week­end in Octo­ber. Here in Amer­i­ca, we “cel­e­brate” dur­ing the entire month of Octo­ber — whether it’s an excuse to guz­zle some fine Bavar­i­an beer or to adver­tise a cheesy Okto­ber­fest sale. Or to cook up some hearty Brats & Beer.

My moth­er was full Ger­man (from the Black For­est), so I, along with my sib­lings Roz, Andy & Rob, real­ly should find some good Brats & Beer (I know one of us is going to find some beer!) and cel­e­brate our close-​to-​Bavarian her­itage. (Just like we’re also half Sicil­ian, so we are con­sid­ered by some “true” Ital­ians to be close, but not quite, Ital­ian. True or not, our rich red suc­co beats the north­ern Ital­ians wimpy white sauce any day. And our Ger­man moth­er could cook Ital­ian like our dad’s own moth­er — she taught her daughter-​in-​law well!)

Sausage seems to run in our fam­i­ly, whether Ger­man or Ital­ian. It’s all köstlich! 


Please comment here.


Here’s some interesting reading about the “real” Oktoberfest.

From Wikipedia, verbatim:

Okto­ber­fest is the world’s largest Volks­fest (beer fes­ti­val and trav­el­ling fun­fair). Held annu­al­ly in Munich, Bavaria, Ger­many, it is a 16- to 18-​day folk fes­ti­val run­ning from mid or late Sep­tem­ber to the first week­end in Octo­ber, with more than 6 mil­lion peo­ple from around the world attend­ing the event every year. Local­ly, it is often called the Wiesn, after the col­lo­qui­al name for the fair­grounds (There­sien­wiese). The Okto­ber­fest is an impor­tant part of Bavar­i­an cul­ture, hav­ing been held since 1810. Oth­er cities across the world also hold Okto­ber­fest cel­e­bra­tions that are mod­elled after the orig­i­nal Munich event.

Dur­ing the event, large quan­ti­ties of Okto­ber­fest Beer are con­sumed: dur­ing the 16-​day fes­ti­val in 2013, for exam­ple, 7.7 mil­lion litres were served. Vis­i­tors also enjoy numer­ous attrac­tions, such as amuse­ment rides, side­stalls and games. There is also a wide vari­ety of tra­di­tion­al foods includ­ing Hendl (roast chick­en), Schweine­brat­en (roast pork), Schwein­shaxe (grilled ham hock), Steck­erl­fisch (grilled fish on a stick), Würstl (sausages) along with Brezen (pret­zels), Knödel (pota­to or bread dumplings), Käs­espät­zle (cheese noo­dles), Reiber­datschi (pota­to pan­cakes), Sauer­kraut or Rotkohl/​Blaukraut (red cab­bage) along with such Bavar­i­an del­i­ca­cies as Obatz­da (a spicy cheese-​butter spread) and Weißwurst (a white sausage).

The Munich Okto­ber­fest orig­i­nal­ly took place in the 16-​day peri­od lead­ing up to the first Sun­day in Octo­ber. In 1994, this long­stand­ing sched­ule was mod­i­fied in response to Ger­man reuni­fi­ca­tion. As such, if the first Sun­day in Octo­ber falls on the 1st or the 2nd, then the fes­ti­val would run until Octo­ber 3 (Ger­man Uni­ty Day). Thus, the fes­ti­val now runs for 17 days when the first Sun­day is Octo­ber 2 and 18 days when it is Octo­ber 1. In 2010, the fes­ti­val last­ed until the first Mon­day in Octo­ber (Octo­ber 4), to mark the even­t’s bicentennial.

Here’s a fun list of “18 Essen­tial Words for Octo­ber­fest” from the Oxford Dic­tio­nar­ies website.

Glücklich Wiesn!


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 #88 Beer & Brats:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator (original ampersand link shapes), Photoshop (everything else)
Fonts: Embossed Black, Embossed Black Wide
WARNING: Do not attempt setting blackletter in all caps unless you are a fully qualified designer!

Ampersand: pork, spices & intestines
Credits:
Background images: graph​ic​stock​.com (superimposed & adjusted)
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!