Weddingbee Blog

There are a few things I love in life more than anything else (e.g., Mr. Giraffe, my pickup truck, graph paper), and one of the things at the top of my list is the ampersand. I love them; I blatantly check them out, drool over their good looks (I’m a little shallow when it comes to type), and would collect them if I could…Oh wait, I already do that. Yes, I collect ampersands. I’m a little bit of a nerd; it’s the typographer in me, I swear.

One of the blogs I follow daily is 300&65 Ampersands, where a new ampersand is posted daily. The September 28th ampersand was from the Milano typeface. Oooooh, it’s just lovely!

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My personal favorite ampersands? Well, I mean, of course it’s nearly impossible to choose, but one of my top favorites is in Bodoni Bold Italic, followed closely by Palatino Italic, Helvetica, Goudy Old Style Italic, and Caslon (540) Oldstlye Italic. (Would my nerd side really be showing if I told you all that I knew those off the top of my head? Oh well, just keeping it real for the hive!)

(I hope you all see the humor in the fact that, aside from Goudy, those fonts are typed in a different font from what they are.)

Now, nothing quite makes me happier than the fact that ampersands are now found in a ton of wedding stationery. I mean, that’s quite possibly the best idea of all time (next to the Snuggie, of course). Take a look at this beauty from Oh So Beautiful Paper:

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Now if you’re trying to decide on an ampersand for you wedding (or life) purposes and don’t know where to look or haven’t found one you like, I’ve got the answer for you!

Every year the Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) puts together something called Font Aid to benefit a cause that needs it. I know we’re heading toward the end of the year, but for 2010, graphic designers in 37 different countries contributed to Font Aid IV by “donating” an ampersand. A typeface called Coming Together, made of 400* ampersands, was created. The typeface can be downloaded at MyFonts (among other sites) for $20, and all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders and the work they’re doing in Haiti.

And there’s a bonus for those looking to use the ampersands on their wedding invites: a lot of the characters use hearts as part of their design!

(screenshots provided by me)

Here’s the entire set (from Veer). A hundred points if you can figure out which one was designed by Miss Giraffe!

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Anyone else love the ampersand enough to use it on your wedding invites? Or, better yet, has anyone seen any ampersands around lately? My collection could use a few more! 

*Because Coming Together has 400 characters, many are used as glyphs. This means you must have access to your glyphs pallet (in Illustrator, for example) to be able to use them all.