#49 Hammer & Nail

#49 Hammer & Nail
Click image to down­load full-​size print suit­able for framing.

Hap­py Labor Day Weekend.

Ham­mer & Nail, #49 in the Amper­Art series, hon­ors all of us who labor for a liv­ing. This edi­tion, Ham­mer & Nail, pays spe­cial trib­ute to those jour­ney­men who build hous­es to give us shel­ter & offices to help us work — like my broth­er Rob and my friend Mike. Rob­bie, I love you like a friend and Mike, I love you like a brother.

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chazsezLOGO-85x64I hope you enjoy your work as much as I do mine. My tool­bag con­tains sev­er­al graph­ics pro­grams, a mon­i­tor & scan­ner, some left­over designers markers from the pre-​digital era, an Xac­to knife which I still use on occa­sion & of course my box of 120 Cray­ola crayons which is always right in front of me. (My favorite Cray­ola col­or is blue-green.)

Some­times I could use a ham­mer, though, when the com­put­er crash­es. On the oth­er hand, it feels good when I nail a logo on the first try.

PRODUCTION NOTES
Orig­i­nal dimen­sions: 20″ x 30″
Pro­gram: Illustrator
Font: Impact (mod­i­fied)
Amper­sand: 8 gauge 16D common
Back­ground: graph​ic​stock​.com

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#27 Work & Play

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Amper­Art #27, Work & Play, hon­ors the busi­ness lead­ers, employ­ees, farm­ers, trades­men and sole entre­pre­neurs that built Amer­i­ca. It also cel­e­brates the fun we have on this last hol­i­day of summer.

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#7 In & Out

#7 In & Out

Amper­Art #7: In & Out
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Hats, helmets and hardhats off to the workforce!

Whether we work 9 to 5, part time, grave­yard, free­lance, or own our own For­tune 500 com­pa­ny, we real­ly do clock in and out. Every moment we’re dri­ving to work, dri­ving a nail, answer­ing email, court­ing a client, or just day­dream­ing about an inven­tion, we are “clocked in.”

And every moment we are “clocked in” we are adding to the val­ue of some­body’s exis­tence, whether through a prod­uct, a pro­fes­sion, or serv­ing a blue plate spe­cial (like my mom did, and always with a smile).

If you are “clocked out” this week­end, enjoy the Labor Day fes­tiv­i­ties. And if you are work­ing, know that your con­tri­bu­tion to what makes this coun­try tick is tru­ly appreciated.


listen up!Work, work, work

Every sin­gle thing I’m touch­ing, look­ing at or lis­ten­ing to right now was made by some­one, or most like­ly hun­dreds of peo­ple, who trad­ed their time, tal­ent, exper­tise, and hard labor for a paycheck.

This mon­i­tor, for exam­ple: the min­ers for the phos­pho­rs; the prod­uct design­ers; the engi­neers; the oil­men who drill for the plas­tic; the sol­der­ers; the print­ers for the UL stick­er; the book­keep­ers, ship­pers, and truck dri­vers; the elec­tri­cal con­trac­tors who sup­ply the pow­er; the tech sup­port; and yes, the graph­ic design­ers who cre­at­ed the pack­ag­ing, adver­tis­ing and instruc­tion manual.
I was lis­ten­ing to an inter­view by the late Bud­dy Rich, jazz drum­mer. When asked if he enjoys his work as a drum­mer, he replied, “Work? What work? I play!”

I love what I do for “work.” Design­ing logos, books, ads and pack­ag­ing; brain­storm­ing with clients; and the thrill of see­ing the first piece off the press is more excit­ing than an exot­ic vaca­tion (some­times just as expen­sive when there’s a typo).

I hope you enjoy what you do, what­ev­er it is. If you don’t, do some­thing else. We do have that choice. If you need some inspi­ra­tion please con­tact me. I am grate­ful that I get to enjoy the earn­ing part of earn­ing a liv­ing, and I’m hap­py to share how it’s pos­si­ble for any­one else.

I love work so much, in fact, I’m going to work on my tan at the pool this Labor Day weekend.

Hap­py Labor Day!