Category: Health & Nutrition

#140 Love & Light

Chaz DeSimone 2 Comments
—140 Love & Light
#140 Love & Light
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.

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!

#138 Health & Happiness

Chaz DeSimone 4 Comments
 
138 Health & Happiness
#138 Health & Happiness
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.

Wishing you Health & Happiness in 2019

Wealth, pros­per­i­ty, excite­ment, fun, adventure…I wish all of that for you. But for the com­ing year I espe­cial­ly am hop­ing for opti­mal health for every­one. You see, a few stel­lar friends of mine need health more than any­thing in the com­ing year. One man of the high­est integri­ty has been in the hos­pi­tal way too long due to a “mis­take” by the sur­geon, anoth­er dear friend (whom I call my “big sis­ter”) is deal­ing with a bout of pleurisy & pneu­mo­nia, & anoth­er is doing her best to live with the ugly c word. I whol­ly believe the can­cer­ous cells don’t have a chance against this brave, upbeat, beau­ti­ful woman who sparkles every sin­gle day in spite of it all. She also sug­gest­ed the title for this piece, far bet­ter than my orig­i­nal “Hap­py & Healthy” — as I real­ly want­ed to place health first. & once my “oops” patient is healed, he’ll live to 100 & more, hap­py & healthy as ever. As for my broth­er, I hope for his back surgery to final­ly “take” this year so he can leave behind the pain he’s endured for over 20 years.

For all of you, my loy­al sub­scribers, thanks for anoth­er year of sup­port­ing my per­son­al project, Amper­Art. I hope it brings you hap­pi­ness. I wish it could deliv­er health as well, but once in awhile there’s an arti­cle about that, too.

Hap­py New Year!

Concept

The mes­sage was inspired by my friends who real­ly need 2019 to be a bet­ter year health­wise. The col­or, which reflects health & hap­pi­ness, is Pan­tone Col­or of the Year 2019. It is called, appro­pri­ate­ly, Liv­ing Coral. The typog­ra­phy is inspired by some work I’ve been doing late­ly for silent film titles.

Vis­it Pan​tone​.com about Pan­tone 16 – 1546 Liv­ing Coral, Col­or of the Year 2019.

 Please comment here.

Production notes for #138 Health & Happiness:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Fonts:Akura Popo (“Health”), Ragg Mopp (“Happiness”), Speedball No. 3 (ampersand)
Ampersand: Speedball No. 3
Background color: Pantone Color of the Year 2019, 16 – 1546 Living Coral
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!

#98 Fresh & Alive

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment
 
 

#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!