National Ampersand Day
Have some fun with this curly, quirky character on #NationalAmpersandDay
This curly, quirky little character is very useful but also fun and functional and is loved by all. It’s used by many, from jotting a shorthand ‘and’ to branding corporate names.
National Ampersand Day is observed annually on 8 September to acknowledge and applaud this great little glyph.
The founder of this National Day, Chaz DeSimone, decided to use this date, because he found that many characters can be cleverly disguised as ampersands when certain fonts are used.
DeSimone is a designer and typographer who founded this day in 2015. He also has a monthly design project called Amperart that features the ampersand as fun and fabulous art.
Some little known facts about the ampersand include:
– The ampersand (&) used to be the last letter of the alphabet
– It is a combination of ‘e’ and ‘t’ which make up the Latin word ‘et’ meaning ‘and’
– The plus sign is actually an ampersand
To discover more interesting facts about the ampersand go to Amperart.com.
Have some fun with the ampersand to celebrate today and do some of the following:
– Use a lot of ampersands!
– In everything you write, substitute the ‘and’ with ‘&’
– Replace syllables with the ampersand for example &droid, c&elabra and b&. These are only a few examples – there are many other replacements that can be done
– Send a special note to friends whose names contain ‘and’ – &dy, &drea, Alex&er and Gr&ma
– Keeping in mind that the ampersand contains the letters ‘et’, design new styles of ampersands
Post on social media using #NationalAmpersandDay.
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