Tag: ampersand

#189 Space & Time

Chaz DeSimone 1 Comment
Re-engineered Webb Telescope becomes first ampersand in space
#189 Space & Time
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.

“A picture is worth a thousand worlds.”

I didn’t say that; Google did. On July 13, 2022, I saw this Google Doo­dle & imme­di­ate­ly clicked on it, for­get­ting what­ev­er it was that I was googling. I rec­og­nized the gold hexag­o­nal mir­rors & knew it had some­thing to do with the James Webb Space Tele­scope. Wow — it was announc­ing the first images sent to earth by JWST! Google’s phrase “a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand worlds” is a very clever pun, so I used it to blast off Amper­Art #189, Space & Time. The very first image sent, that of deep space, was used as the back­ground in my lat­est piece. Here’s the Google Doo­dle — click on it to see its amus­ing ani­ma­tion & read about its cre­ative development.

Google Doodle celebrating first images from Webb Telescope
Click the Google Doo­dle to see the ani­ma­tion & read about the artwork.

Have you heard of the James Webb Space Telescope? 

Ear­li­er this week I met a new friend who has been in tech­nol­o­gy through­out his career. I told him how excit­ed I was about the first images of space & time from the new tele­scope, expect­ing him to share in the excite­ment. Instead, he asked “You mean Hub­ble?” He was not even aware of the James Webb Space Tele­scope, Hub­ble’s suc­ces­sor. (He has since told me he Googled it, and said “it’s all over the news!” Yes it is.) 

I was amazed that some­one in tech­nol­o­gy had not heard of this tech­no­log­i­cal won­der. That alert­ed me to real­ize maybe not every­one has heard about the JWST — or oth­er inno­va­tions, for that mat­ter — even if it would be of inter­est to them. So I was com­pelled to add this video to intro­duce those of you (espe­cial­ly if you wit­nessed the first moon land­ing in 1969 on your black & white tubes) who have not heard of this suc­ces­sor to the Hub­ble tele­scope, which is mag­nif­i­cent in its own right & still in ser­vice. You just might be as awed as the rest of us are by the James Webb Space Tele­scope — espe­cial­ly after you see the spec­tac­u­lar first images that were revealed July 12, 2022.

This excel­lent video by Fras­er Cain at uni​ver​se​to​day​.com will explain & entertain:

(If the video does not appear, play it on YouTube.)

For those who pre­fer to read, there’s a good entry about JWST at Wikipedia.

Vis­it the web­sites list­ed below (includ­ing NASA​.org) for more infor­ma­tion about the James Webb Space Telescope.

Space is hard to comprehend…

I have been fol­low­ing the jour­ney of the James Webb Space Tele­scope since it was first launched on Decem­ber 25, 2021. For some rea­son I just feel a deep pride in this ven­ture & I’m thrilled at every task it suc­ceeds in func­tion­ing even bet­ter than expect­ed. It seems like a mir­a­cle that noth­ing has gone wrong when there is so much that could have. Even the traf­fic acci­dent (appar­ent­ly they hap­pen in out­er space, too) of a micro mete­or dent­ing the mir­ror last month was planned ahead & com­pen­sat­ed for. 

It’s hard to com­pre­hend how vast space is & what’s real­ly out there, but…

Planetary Nebula NGC 3132, one of first images from Webb Telescope

…time is even harder

It is beyond my com­pre­hen­sion that what I am look­ing at in these first images from the James Webb Space Tele­scope is from space & time 13 bil­lion years ago. I tru­ly can­not com­pre­hend that! I will just set­tle for admir­ing a spec­tac­u­lar image achieved through the vision & tech­nol­o­gy of bril­liant humans on earth.

The above image, Plan­e­tary Neb­u­la NGC 3132, aka South­ern Ring Neb­u­la, is cap­tured by JWST in dying star’s final moments (albeit very long moments). More fas­ci­na­tion about NGC 3132 here.

AA #189 features Galaxy Cluster SMACS 0723

James Webb Telescope first image: Galaxy Cluster SMACS 0723

This has been one of my favorite Amper­Art cre­ations to date. I am thrilled to design a piece that cel­e­brates the suc­cess — per­form­ing flaw­less­ly & far exceed­ing its expec­ta­tions — of this mar­vel of tech­nol­o­gy, which I have been fol­low­ing since its launch on Decem­ber 25, 2021. 

Not only does this Amper­Art #189 Space & Time back­ground fea­ture the very first image (at right or below) released by the James Webb Space Tele­scope, but the con­fig­u­ra­tion of the tele­scope’s gold mir­rors made for a sim­ple task of cre­at­ing the amper­sand by just mov­ing a few mir­rors around. (The amper­sand tele­scope turned out kin­da cute, don’t you think?)

The image above is the deep­est & sharpest infrared image of the dis­tant uni­verse to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy clus­ter SMACS 0723 is over­flow­ing with detail. You can see a larg­er ver­sion & read all the details on the NASA web­site. Here are some highlights:

✴ The image above shows the galaxy clus­ter SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 bil­lion years ago. 

✴ This deep field, tak­en by Webb’s Near-​Infrared Cam­era (NIR­Cam), is made from images at dif­fer­ent wave­lengths, total­ing 12.5 hours

✴ Thou­sands of galax­ies – includ­ing the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time.

Now this should real­ly send your mind to infin­i­ty & beyond:

✴ This slice of the vast uni­verse — every­thing you see in the image above — is approx­i­mate­ly the size of a grain of rice held at arm’s length by some­one on the ground.

Alien lifeforms

I’m sure if JWST ever finds a colony of intel­li­gent beings out there, they will all be naked. & hap­py. Maybe that’s what it will take to enlight­en us earth­lings to final­ly strip away our prud­ish, igno­rant, sense­less cen­sor­ship against our own bod­ies. After all, as my favorite bumper stick­er says: 

IF THE UNIVERSE HAD MEANT FOR US TO GO NAKED
WE WOULD HAVE BEEN BORN THAT WAY

There’s plen­ty of space & time for a bil­lion words or less, so please…

LEAVE A COMMENT

Explore the James Webb Space Telescope & Mission & Images

NASA James Webb Space Telescope mission

First images from Webb Space Telescope

The ultimate guide to the James Webb Space Telescope

Other “webbsites” about the Webb Telescope

WHERE IS WEBB NOW?
Production notes for #189 Space &Time:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Programs: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Font: Tall Films
Ampersand: custom by Chaz DeSimone, based on JWST mirror array
Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Background image: NASA & deposit​pho​tos​.com (enhanced)
“A picture is worth a thousand worlds.” quote from Google​.com
Text about the JWST from Wikipedia​.org
Video: Fraser Cain, uni​ver​se​to​day​.com
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.
Visit DesimoneDesign.com Proper Professional Perfect

Chaz DeS­i­mone, design­er & typog­ra­ph­er, is the cre­ator of Amper­Art & 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 & his entire career is design, so long as each project requires the most sophis­ti­cat­ed, log­i­cal, cap­ti­vat­ing results. Con­tact him at chaz@​desimonedesign.​com.

Thank you for sub­scrib­ing to Chaz’s per­son­al design project, Amper­Art. Please invite your friends — those who are fans of the fun & fab­u­lous amper­sand — to sub­scribe at amper​art​.com.

chaz sez... rants & raves by Chaz Desimone, otherwise known as Chaz the Spaz
Want more?
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

#184 Chocolates & Truffles

Chaz DeSimone 5 Comments
#184 Chocolates & Truffles
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.

Chocolates & Truffles

But truf­fles are choco­lates, you say. Right, how­ev­er I’ve titled this “Choco­lates & Truf­fles” for a cou­ple reasons:

First, truf­fles are a unique type of con­fec­tion. Although they are coat­ed with choco­late, they are most­ly known for their ganache fill­ings of caramel, can­died orange peel, hazel­nut, cof­fee, fruits, dates or even more choco­late. Sim­ply put, truf­fles are a kind of choco­late where­as choco­late is a fla­vor of truf­fles. (Here’s anoth­er way to look at it is: a chocolate-​covered ice cream bar is cat­e­go­rized as ice cream, not choco­late candy.)

The oth­er rea­son I named this Amper­Art piece “Choco­lates & Truf­fles” is because my orig­i­nal title was too plain & awk­ward: “Dark & Milk.” When I found the pho­to­graph that includ­ed an assort­ment of both choco­lates & truf­fles, that tast­ed like the sweet spot for the title. (Of course I delib­er­at­ed way too long on “Choco­lates & Truf­fles” vs “Truf­fles & Choco­lates.” I won’t explain my deci­sion process here; the box of can­dy would expire before its “best by” date.)

What is chocolate?

I don’t have to tell you what choco­late is — it’s one of the most pop­u­lar foods on the plan­et. It’s cre­at­ed from the beans of cacao trees. These beans are har­vest­ed into a dark, cream­ing brown mate­r­i­al used for all types of bak­ing & cook­ing. It’s also used to make all your favorite sweet treats such as brown­ies, cakes & can­dy bars.

What are chocolate truffles?

Tak­ing its roots in Europe, choco­late truf­fle is a dessert del­i­ca­cy that has a long & deli­cious his­to­ry. The name comes from a Latin word mean­ing ‘lump’ because of its sim­i­lar­i­ty in appear­ance to truf­fle mush­room, a kind of fun­gus that grows under Hazel, Poplar & Oak trees. Choco­late truf­fles are cre­at­ed using ganache & a type of coat­ing, usu­al­ly some type of con­fec­tion or dark, white or milk choco­late & cocoa pow­der. They’re then tra­di­tion­al­ly rolled into a rus­tic, mis­shapen look to resem­ble the truf­fle mush­room they’re named after. They often come in fill­ings of caramel, dif­fer­ent fla­vors of cream, fruits, dates or even more chocolate.

Just for comparison:

chocolate candy

choco­late

chocolate truffle

choco­late truffle

truffle fungus

non-​chocolate truf­fle
(aka fun­gus)

Dedication

Amper­Art #184 Choco­lates & Truf­fles is ded­i­cat­ed to three spe­cial ladies: 

❤ Leona DeS­i­mone, my moth­er, who loved See’s choco­lates & always had a box at hol­i­day dinners,

❤ Roslyn, my younger sis­ter, who car­ries on the tra­di­tion of See’s dur­ing the holidays, &

❤ Jeanette, my “adopt­ed old­er sis­ter” who loves (& intro­duced me to) truffles.

My favorite can­dy is also See’s — but it’s the but­ter­scotch marsh­mal­low kiss­es. I don’t care for chocolate.

What’s your favorite type of chocolate?
Production notes for #184 Chocolates & Truffles:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Photoshop
Font (text): French Script
Font (ampersand): Capistrano
Credits:
Photograph: all​star​.by via deposit​pho​tos​.com (modified)
Reference: truf​fleers​.com/​b​l​o​g​s​/​o​u​r​-​b​l​o​g​/​d​i​f​f​e​r​e​n​c​e​-​b​e​t​w​e​e​n​-​t​r​u​f​f​l​e​s​-​a​n​d​-​c​h​o​c​o​l​ate
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 for clients who desire the most sophis­ti­cat­ed, log­i­cal, cap­ti­vat­ing cre­ative. 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

#182 Ugly & Tacky

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment
#182 Ugly & Tacky
#182 Ugly & Tacky
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.

Not just ugly sweaters…

If you’re going to go all out with tack­i­ness this Christ­mas, besides the ugly sweater you can wear match­ing paja­mas & out­ra­geous slip­pers, too.

Not just for humans, either

T Rex wearing Ugly Christmas Sweater

Every­one wants to get into the act. Dogs, cats, even dinosaurs. This ani­ma­tron­ic T‑Rex got into the Christ­mas spir­it at the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um in Lon­don. See full size pho­to & read the arti­cle by Maria Cramer in the New York Times. Image: Trustees of the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um, London

Who started this tradition, anyway?

The fol­low­ing facts are excerpt­ed from these inter­est­ing arti­cles:
Christ­mas sweaters have been around a long time, but they haven’t always been ugly
The first “offi­cial” Ugly Sweater Day was in 2002 to raise mon­ey for a friend’s can­cer treatment

Ugly sweaters have been around for as fash­ion itself. They weren’t always made pur­pose­ful­ly — maybe some­one made a mis­take in their knit­ting or something. 

Mass mar­ket ugly sweaters made their pur­pose­ful debut in the 80s. Bill Huxtable (Bill Cos­by) made them pop­u­lar on The Cos­by Show, then Clark Gris­wold (Chevy Chase) added his own twist in 1989 with Nation­al Lampoon’s Christ­mas Vaca­tion.

Ugly sweaters went out in the 1990s until two men from Van­cou­ver threw the first offi­cial tacky hol­i­day sweater par­ty to raise mon­ey for their friend’s can­cer treat­ment. The rest is his­to­ry, spread­ing far & wide like an ugly (but fun) fash­ion statement. 

There’s a National Ugly Sweater Day (of course)

Every third Fri­day of Decem­ber (Decem­ber 17), peo­ple dress ugly & tacky on Nation­al Ugly Sweater Day. Read the his­to­ry of this day at nation​al​to​day​.com as well as details about these statistics:

23% of peo­ple will buy an ugly sweater

9% of peo­ple have celebrated

Ugly​christ​mass​weaters​.com made $5 million

& even an Ugly Christmas Sweater store

Grand­ma won’t make an ugly sweater for you? Take a cyber sleigh ride to


ugly​christ​mass​weater​.com


for your own per­son­al­ized, cus­tom, or off the ugly rack sweater. Be the most unfash­ion­able guest at your next Ugly Sweater Christ­mas Party.

What’s the ugli­est Christ­mas sweater you’ve seen?

Sweaters may be ugly & tacky, but may your holidays be classy & happy

Production notes for #182 Ugly & Tacky:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Text: Chaz just took up knitting
Ampersand: Berlin Sans (shape model for artwork)
Credits:
Illustrations: deposit​pho​tos​.com (modified)
T. Rex photo: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Articles:
https://​www​.cnn​.com/​s​t​y​l​e​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​u​g​l​y​-​c​h​r​i​s​t​m​a​s​-​j​u​m​p​e​r​s​/​i​n​d​e​x​.​h​tml
https://​nation​al​to​day​.com/​n​a​t​i​o​n​a​l​-​u​g​l​y​-​s​w​e​a​t​e​r​-​day
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