#77 Seek & Find
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Someone dear & close to me inspired the title Seek & Find for this New Year’s AmperArt.
2014 was a tough year for many of us. Loss of loved ones, loss of jobs, loss of property.
I was even at a loss of how to turn the numerals 2 – 0‑1 – 5 into an ampersand, a tradition for every New Year’s AmperArt rendering so far. Absolutely nothing came to mind, so I simply decided to skip this year’s endeavor & issue a non-new-year piece instead.
But then I got some shocking news. A very close, very dear person in my life – I’ll call him Mr. A – someone who has intelligence & wisdom & integrity that is unsurpassed – was laid off earlier this year. He has tried relentlessly to find another job, & is now even surviving on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches; in fact, now just peanut butter since he ran out of jelly. This is someone who is responsible about time and money, and who is not lazy about sending out resumes. And he will even settle for work that is below his multiple degree level. Still, no nibbles. My heart goes out to Mr. A, a person deserving of so much. Yet his humility, perseverence and strong faith keeps him going, seeking work until he finds something.
“The New Year, Twenty-Fifteen, will bring a change; it has to.” I didn’t say that; Mr. A did. Right then I told him he inspired me to design a 2015 New Year’s AmperArt afterall, no matter how hard I had to seek & find something relevant & maybe even clever.
The words were right in front of me: seek employment, find a job. Seek & find. Or as the bible says,
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you…”
—Matthew 7:7 (King James Version)
To my dear Mr. A, may you seek & find the position that fulfills not only your financial needs but also your passion for creative problem-solving & rewarding work.
To my family & friends & readers, may you seek & find success & prosperity in 2015. May you seek & find health & happiness. May you seek & find joy & wonder.
For those of you in a position like Mr. A, may you seek & find your dream job early in the coming year.
& to all ampersand fans, I hope you seek & find the perfect ampersand in 2015.
The font for Seek & Find was chosen for its classic proportions & round elements to complement the style of the numerals & ampersand. Obviously, a designer does not choose a typestyle based on its name, but after Seek & Find was finished I realized I coincidentally did seek & find an appropriately-named font for the new year: Futura.
For those of you who can’t find the ampersand in this edition, just seek & find a little further: it’s the “plus” sign inside the zero. (That big round circle is a zero, you know. It’s part of the abstract “2015” that makes this a new year’s piece just for this new year.) The “plus” sign is “shorthand” for the ampersand (which is shorthand for “et” or “and”). You can see how that works here:
Seek & find more interesting facts about the ampersand here.
Production notes for #77 Seek & Find:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Illustrator
Font: Futura
Ampersand & numerals: drawn in Illustrator by Chaz DeSimone
Reference:
Phrases: The Phrase Finder — phrases.org.uk
For professional graphic design, please visit Desimone Design.
