Blog
Now 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.…
Read MoreConfessions of a Creative Pro
Introduction by Nancy Upper While traveling in an airplane on October 3, 2015, David Blatner’s thoughts turned to ampersands. As his mind wandered back to his childhood, he wrote…
Read MoreAt a&g, We Love Our Ampersands
Introduction by Nancy Upper The ad agency Allen & Gerritsen believes that people make the place, and that people’s outside interests invigorate the company culture. In autumn 2012, these…
Read MoreJeff Portaro’s Dog & Pony Show
Introduction by Nancy Upper During research for my forthcoming book, Power of Ampersand, I discovered this November 2013 design by Jeff Portaro on Instagram. Power of Ampersand will feature…
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