Helvetica

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It's no secret; I love type. There's something about letterforms that I find absolutely mesmerizing. As a I child, I would spend hours pouring over type specimen books, drinking in their subtleties of form. And my favorite was always Helvetica.

Later on, when I was off at college studying typography, I learned that Helvetica was the favorite of a lot of other folks, too. In fact, its use is "universal." (Pardon the pun, typophiles. :)

Think you DON'T know Helvetica? Check out this PBS short video: Helvetica. It's actually a clip from a movie about the type face. (See? I told you there were a lot of other Helvetica enthusiasts out there!)

Think you DO know Helvetica? Try this fun game, where designer David Friedman found 20 logos originally designed with Helvetica and swapped them out with Arial (blasphemy!). Your job is to pick out the original. Have fun! (I got a perfect score! How about you? :)

Busy Work

AND SEW ON, AND SEW FORTH

Baby Bibs!

My niece, who just moved to Johannesburg, is expecting her first baby, a girl, Liliana Grace. She's asked her relatives stateside for homemade items for the baby; something small and easy to stuff into a suitcase. (It's really expensive to ship stuff to South Africa!)

Now, we are a crafty, creative bunch for sure. As I type: my step-mom is making a quilt; my sister is "crocheting like a madwoman" as I understand it, working on a little oufit; my brother, cabinet-maker extraordinaire, is working on a wooden box which I'm sure will be a treasured family heirloom some day; a couple of my neices are working on blankets; and my other sister (the grandmother-to-be) is sewing everything under the sun—except for baby bibs, 'cuz that's what I promised to make. (She is a professional seamstress, and costume designer, and has the most amazing fabric stash I have ever seen! But since she's in FL and I'm in NH, I had to hit up the fabric store...)

My goal was simple: I had eight weeks to make seven bibs, one for each day of the week. But then, after drooling over all those "quilter's quarters" at the fabric store, and having a tough time narrowing my selection down to only seven prints, I decided I'd make the bibs reversible, and picked out 14 instead. I figured I could mix and match the left over scraps for appliques, ruffles, and such. I didn't have a pattern, so I bought an 89 cent bib, scanned it into my computer, and traced it in Illustrator. I added a seam allowance and printed out a template. I was ready to roll....

My head was swimming with ideas, so I dove right in. Now, I am no professional seamstress, and sometimes my creativity gets the best of me on projects. On the first bib, I got totally carried away making applique flower petals at the neckline (so when it's on, the baby's head looks like the center of a flower). It is so-o-o cute, but it took me three weeks to complete! (I don't have a whole lot of spare time between running a business, chairing a non-profit, planning a remodel of a second home, and basic family & household obligations....)

Okay, so three weeks for one bib meant I only had four weeks to complete the other six! My weekly bib quota had suddenly gone wa-a-y up! No problem (as long as there are 24 hours in a day, I still had plenty of time...). I dragged those bibs cross-country to LA with me last month—and down to Long Island, too—and they've been back and forth to the Lakes Region several times. By the time I ship them to FL, and then my sister carries them to Africa, they will be some well-traveled bibs indeed.

Down to the Wire

Well, there's only one week left now, before my sister flies off to Africa with her second suitcase stuffed with baby gifts, and I am still not finished with the bibs. (And I still have to ship them down to her in FL, too!) I have been pulling all-night sewing sessions this week, staying up into the wee hours of the morning. Last night, I was finally able to pack away the sewing machine, and finished slip stitching all the openings. All that is left are the embellishments and Velcro closures. (I continued to get carried away on a couple of other designs—adding embroidery, ruffles, bows, etc.—but the last four are decidedly PLAIN. Such a shame, as I had SO many more ideas!) I found some nifty buttons to dress the last ones up a bit, so they'll look nice, too. Of course, four bibs actually means eight sides because they're reversible—me and my brilliant ideas!—so I've still got a lot of hand-sewing to do, but I think I'm going to make it.

People just better not look too closely at the handiwork (as I said before, I'm no seamstress). I'm hoping that they won't fall apart in the wash! But I figure, I'm sending seven of them, so the odds are with me that a few will withstand the test of time anyway. And one thing's for sure: Baby Lily will be the best-dressed little drooler in Jo-burg! :)

Double Daggers

GOTTA LOVE THE GLYPHS, NO. 1

A Beautifully Designed Anicillary Character Gives Me Pause
Yes, it's true, the name of my business, Ampers&® Studio, is centered around, and includes, an ampersand (&) character. Not so surprising. I am, after all, a typographer. And what typographer doesn't love ampersands? I've written about them here.
But in this instance, the letterform giving me pause is that third-order reference mark used in punctuation, a.k.a. the double dagger (‡), pictured here in a graphic I came across on Typography.com. (And isn't it lovely?) The graphic accompanies an article about Reference Marks:
"Daggers come from that archipelago of typographic symbols known as reference marks, which refer readers elsewhere for explanatory or exegetic notes. The traditional first-order reference mark is the asterisk (*)…."
And that, my friends, makes fascinating reading for typography fanatics such as myself (seriously). If you love type, too, you might enjoy reading more from H&FJ News' article, House of Flying Reference Marks, or Quillon & Choil, here.*
A Dire Dagger Dillema
This glyph, in particular, happened to catch my eye because of a situation in a recent project I'd been working on. You see, an asterisk had already been used within the project's text, as had the dagger (the second-order reference mark). So when my client requested to add in a third reference set, I used a double dagger, which is standard operating procedure in typography.
Well, as it happens, the dagger had been used to indicate those deceased individuals mentioned within the text (which, if you think about it, is kind of ironic...). Anyway, to use the double dagger as a reference for a distinguished position held, even though proper, somehow didn't seem right. Further, it was difficult to tell who had been honored and who had passed on! (This would not do at all.) So instead, I threw the rules of typography right out the window (gasp!), and went with a lovely lozenge or diamond (◊), which seems like a much more distinguished mark to use for signifying a distinguished position. So forgive me, my mentors—who taught me the differences between, and proper usage of, EM- EN- and regular ol' dashes—I know the situation called for a double dagger, but "sometimes you just gotta do whatcha gotta do, eh?"
*Check out the asterisked bit at the end of H&FJ's article, an advisory notice from the New Oxford English Dictionary on pronunciation. (Don't you just love it? :)

Ampers& Web Site Review

SITE SCORES 17.5 OUT OF 20—NOT BAD!


This past weekend, I ran into some friends I hadn't seen in quite some time, and they congratulated me on my recent web site award. My confused reply, "What are you talking about?"

Needless to say, I was curious, and they didn't have much more info, as they had heard it from another mutual friend of ours.... So, when I got back to the office this morning, I did a Google search, to see what I could find. (I didn't find any mention of an award, so if someone knows more about that, please share.) What I did find though, was that, apparently, back in February of this year, my website had been reviewed in a local newspaper (see the review online at seacoastonline.com), and scored a respectable 17.5 out of 20. (Who knew?!?)

Anyway, thank you John Shore, for your kind words. It's always nice to be recognized and to hear that someone notices and appreciates your design efforts. Cheers!