The ampersand & more.

May 21, 2008 4:18 PM

The ampersand has been the subject of typographic embroidery, has famously been used as a tattoo, displayed on plates, and has even been deep fried. There are dancing ones, printed ones, but unfortunately no Russian ones. How do you like your ampersand?
posted by msaleem (23 comments total)

My favorite from my graphic design days was always italicized Galliard. Bold is crap but regular is wonderful - it looks like a musical instrument.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:22 PM on May 21, 2008

Ha! I love the Figgs and Phantoms shoutout on the tatoo!
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:35 PM on May 21, 2008

(On the other hand, et-lookin' ampersands give me the heebie-jeebies. I don't care if it's the original: I'll take one of them figure-8-lookin' deals any day.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:37 PM on May 21, 2008

Obligitory H&F-J link.
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 4:47 PM on May 21, 2008

I don't know about you, but I like mine Alvy.
posted by scrump at 5:00 PM on May 21, 2008

I like it fine, and I didn't even have to rely on a single web site to find some cool ones.
posted by nax at 5:49 PM on May 21, 2008

Google isn't a web site now?
posted by flaterik at 5:58 PM on May 21, 2008

My tattoo is like this. I also just got a semicolon. As far as punctuation goes, I like the ampersand best for looks, but the semicolon for meaning.
posted by dame at 6:10 PM on May 21, 2008

Google isn't a web site now?

So I googled ampersand, and then I visited those websites. But instead of making links to every site I found, I just sent the search page.

That clear it up?
posted by nax at 6:24 PM on May 21, 2008

My favorite thing about ampersands is how they got their name.
posted by penduluum at 6:28 PM on May 21, 2008

and per se and
posted by iamkimiam at 6:39 PM on May 21, 2008

I have always loved the &. I fell in love with it when I read Darwin's diaries etc which had been photocopied. Good enough for him, good enough for me. No one--almost no one--uses the amersand anyh longer, and along with the decline of disco and the death of The Rat Pack, a sure marker for the decline of western civilization.
posted by Postroad at 7:07 PM on May 21, 2008

Attention all designers: at some point in your career you're going to want to base a layout or headline around a great, big, giant ampersand, with the two words it connects in much smaller type to either side of it. Never give into this temptation. It was cute in 1970. It's a big, dumb cliche now.
posted by Faze at 7:23 PM on May 21, 2008

If Russian "doesn't need" the & because its word for and is one letter long, why would Italian use it so much?
posted by kittyprecious at 8:23 PM on May 21, 2008

I like it fine, and I didn't even have to rely on a single web site to find some cool ones.

It seems to me that relying on a single website to find some cool ones was exactly what you did.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:00 PM on May 21, 2008

Ampersand Duck.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:11 PM on May 21, 2008

Clearly a superior post, kudos.

*Adds scrump to Christmas card list*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:38 PM on May 21, 2008

I like the French word even better: esperluette.
posted by OutlawedYeomen at 12:32 AM on May 22, 2008

The ampersand from 'A Bit of Fry & Laurie'.
posted by krisjohn at 2:21 AM on May 22, 2008

Many years ago, the culture vultures in my small town were trying to inveigle a famous son to start up an arts festival, like a much more famous one he was the artistic director of at the time. My idea was to call it the Smalltown And... Festival, because then you could dump all kinds of stuff in: jazz, opera, chamber music, performance art, whatever, and because I knew graphic artists would be all over the ampersand in designing the posters and marketing. And yes, Faze, they probably would have done the Thing One & Thing Two shtick. Fortunately for humanity, the idea never got past touring the potential venues.
posted by ancientgower at 4:39 AM on May 22, 2008

...and ?
posted by Cookiebastard at 4:42 AM on May 22, 2008

I could only get a tatto of an ampersand if I had a corresponding typographical element somewhere else on my skin.
and/or?
and/and not?
Any grammar nazis available? This is probably the only time, ever, that your finicky attention to detail will be welcome in an online forum, so fire away.
posted by SciencePunk at 5:39 AM on May 22, 2008

It seems to me that relying on a single website to find some cool ones was exactly what you did.

Okay, we've clearly got a semantic issue going here. OP showed examples of ampersands nearly all from the same URL. I searched google (don't know another way to find websites, sorry), and found gobs of interesting examples of ampersands from many different websites. "Gosh," I thought, "OP didn't take this idea as far as s/he could have." So I linked the google search. As my second post said, it seemed pointless to link every single site to *make* my point, although I could have done so, and did. I think the OP should have expanded a nifty idea beyond the single URL. I guess I outcuted myself and got nabbed by the semantics police.

So here we go-- neat idea OP. I wish you had found other websites dealing with the ampersand. Like some of these.

We done now?
posted by nax at 8:10 AM on May 22, 2008