WAD Happened September 8, 2022
Thursday, September 8, 2022, World Ampersand Day dawned for the first time in history. The date gained fame in 2015 when typographer and graphic designer Chaz DeSimone, founder and principal…
Read MoreShoulders of Friends
When we read, thoughts remote from the words on the page or screen often pop into our minds. In the unlikely moment of reading how Muscovites celebrated winter holidays…
Read MoreFlatten the Curve
Theater removes us from the warp and weft of reality and allows us to escape into other lives. Lighting, sets, and actors pull us from our theater seats through the…
Read MoreNow is the Time for All Good Distilleries to Come to the Aid of Their Country*
Two Cowichan Valley distilleries — Ampersand and Stillhead — devised ingenious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cowichan Valley is a region around the Cowichan River, Cowichan Bay, and Cowichan Lake…
Read MoreAmpersand Pretzels
Two things everyone loves are pretzels and ampersands. Bring the two together and you have a sold-out house. September 19, 2019, pretzels, ampersands, and graphic designers merged in the…
Read MoreHidden Depths
In December 2012, on Dribbble (with three “b”s), the online community where graphic designers, web designers, illustrators, and photographers showcase new work, I discovered an unusual ampersand. It appeared to…
Read MoreNotable Ampersand 001
Adobe Caslon Pro italic ampersand designed in 1990 by Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems Inc. English gunsmith and typeface designer William Caslon (1692–1766) created the eponymous Caslon letterforms. For her…
Read MoreThe Ampersand Hotel, London
Introduction by Nancy Upper In her 17 June 2015 BBC article on art history, Victoria and Albert: How a royal love changed culture, Lucinda Hawksley explains that Queen Victoria (1819-1901)…
Read MoreWhy We Care About Ampersands
By NANCY UPPER – March 25, 2018 Ampersands began in human nature. For ever since mortals devised the first alphabets, 3,000-1,000 BCE, men and women have shortened words to…
Read MoreTKR – Total Knee Replacement
By Nancy Upper At 1:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, 2018, I drove my husband Dennis to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for a total knee replacement, right knee.…
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