Tag: life

#149 Every Now & Then

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment
 
149 Every Now & Then
#149 Every Now & Then
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.

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!

#102 Ups & Downs

Chaz DeSimone 1 Comment

 

#102 Ups & Downs
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.

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!

Family & Friends & Ampersands…our greatest holiday gifts

Chaz DeSimone 4 Comments

Family & Friends includes my cats!

#75 Family & Friends
Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing and framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

First, to my own family & friends:

I love you, I appre­ci­ate you, I respect you,
I enjoy you, I thank you.
But most of all, I love you.

About this edition

I got the idea for Amper­Art #75, Fam­i­ly & Friends, fea­tur­ing our friend the fun & fab­u­lous amper­sand, about a month ago, after a friend & a fam­i­ly mem­ber came to my res­cue. More on that lat­er. (Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Roz.) 

Fam­i­ly & Friends is a very spe­cial Amper­Art title to me & hope­ful­ly to you. I went through sev­er­al iter­a­tions to bring you a mean­ing­ful, ele­gant piece that you might want to send to oth­ers with your own sen­ti­ments, or frame for your fam­i­ly room (or Fam­i­ly & Friends Room) wall. It was issued for Thanks­giv­ing 2014, but let’s face it, Fam­i­ly & Friends are timeless.

First, you’ll meet my own fam­i­ly & friends (includ­ing my pets, of course). I am blessed with a lov­ing fam­i­ly &  friends that are the very best. That includes you, too, my awe­some read­ers & sub­scribers — you’re my Amper­Art family!

Then, you’ll see how the Fam­i­ly & Friends edi­tion was cre­at­ed. In response to sev­er­al requests from sub­scribers who want to see how I cre­ate Amper­Art, or how I even choose a top­ic, I’ve explained the process in the next sec­tion. (This par­tic­u­lar Fam­i­ly & Friends piece posed sev­er­al chal­lenges even though the design is quite sim­ple. It’s a per­fect exam­ple of why each Amper­Art piece can take 20 hours or more.)

My own family & friends

I am blessed with a won­der­ful family:

Mom & Dad (both gone but always in my heart) — both of my par­ents are the def­i­n­i­tion of integrity.

My sis­ter Roslyn & my broth­ers Andy & Rob—you are the epit­o­me of love, friend­ship, hon­esty and gen­eros­i­ty. You’ve always been there when your eccen­tric black sheep of a broth­er need­ed a help­ing hand or a hand-​out. Thank you.

Mary Ann, you helped me get my very first van so I could start my busi­ness. You took care of us kids when Mom near­ly died. And today you com­ment on every one of my Amper­Art pieces. You’re very spe­cial to me…cuz you’re my favorite cuz.

My friends are so plen­ti­ful there prob­a­bly aren’t enough giga­bytes on the serv­er to list them all, so I’ll men­tion the old­est and dear­est, in the order they came into my life: Gary R, Gary S, Joe R (we’re talk­ing ele­men­tary and junior high on those three), Lande W, Gregg & Jill, Mardy D, Deb­o­rah T, Lisa S (& lat­er Sean), Jim B (if it weren’t for him I’d still be design­ing with a T‑square), Mark H (& lat­er Crys­tal), Pat B, Tara K, Mar­ty K, Sandy J, Denis W, Jeanette F. Those who have depart­ed, whom I miss dear­ly: Gilbert (the one & only!), Joe F, Pre­ston H.

My fur­ry fam­i­ly: Tiger, Bull­dog, Don­ald (yes, a duck), Woofer (my very best friend for six­teen years), Bri­quette, Amos & Andy…and my cur­rent awe­some crea­tures, Jeep­ers & Bebe.

I feel like I’m at the podi­um for the Oscars! Well, you see, that’s what my fam­i­ly & friends do for me.

Now back to what inspired this piece: Last month I had a seri­ous cir­cum­stance, and between my best friend Joe Rin­au­do and my best sis­ter Roslyn (she’d be my best sis­ter, I’m sure, if I had a dozen but she too is the one & only) they did some­thing for me as a com­plete sur­prise, sav­ing me from being home­less for the sec­ond time in my life. Imme­di­ate­ly I thought of com­bin­ing “Fam­i­ly & Friends” into one piece of art — to me they are often one and the same. My broth­ers & many friends & even a few clients have also helped me in need — tremen­dous­ly. If I did­n’t have to get this sent out right now I’d tell you about those Fam­i­ly & Friends expe­ri­ences, too. Instead, I’ll come up with some new ideas to illus­trate those episodes in future editions.

How this project began…and wouldn’t end

This Fam­i­ly & Friends piece encoun­tered so many obsta­cles and mor­phed through so many changes I fig­ured it’s the per­fect exam­ple to explain how I cre­ate my Amper­Art pieces. Read More