#149 Every Now & Then

 
149 Every Now & Then
#149 Every Now & Then
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You know how the phrase ends…

Every now & then the sun breaks through the clouds.

Every now & then you get a lucky break.

Or just…

Every now & then some­thing sim­ply breaks.

All of the above occurred dur­ing the month of May.

My com­put­er kept shut­ting down every now & then for appar­ent­ly no rea­son. The lucky break is that my broth­er Rob, a com­put­er genius, fig­ured it was sim­ply over­heat­ing. He talked me through the repair & it’s run­ning nice & cool again.

As for the weather…it was all over the place in Los Ange­les dur­ing May. Sun, rain, hot, cold. Memo­r­i­al Day week­end was espe­cial­ly unusu­al. Nor­mal­ly sun­ny all three days, Sat­ur­day was hot & clear but the very next day it was cold & rainy. On Mon­day, Memo­r­i­al Day itself, every now & then the sun broke through the clouds.

Every now & then I hope an amper­sand puts a smile on your face.


Concept & Design

Quite sim­ple. The com­put­er crashed & I explod­ed.


 Please comment here.


Production notes for #149 Every Now & Then:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator
Fonts: Professor Minty (modified), Variex OT Light, Freestyle Script

Ampersand: Professor Minty (modified)
Note:
&” replaces “and” in 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.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

#133 Death & Destruction

#133 Death & Destruction
#133 Death & Destruction
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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!

#102 Ups & Downs

 

#102 Ups & Downs
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This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

I’m sure 99% of you can relate to Ups & Downs, right?

Nor­mal­ly I send my lat­est Amper­Art release on a Tues­day (or lat­er in the week if I’m still adding final touch­es). But this one, Ups & Downs, is most appro­pri­ate for a Monday.

I’ve had my share of ups & downs this year, but thanks to fam­i­ly & friends, they’ve helped me through. I just wish one par­tic­u­lar con artist of a client would stop lying & pay her bill so my life can be more com­fy once again.

The one constant

Through all my ups & downs, there’s been one con­stant that has kept me some­what sane for the past sev­er­al years. That is cre­at­ing one Amper­Art piece each & every month since June, 2011—wow, that’s six years this month!

I would­n’t have kept at it with­out your loy­al sup­port & won­der­ful com­ments. Thank you, Amper­Art subscribers!

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 #102 Ups & Downs:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font: Ad Lib
Ampersand: Hand drawn, based on Candara 
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!