The Amazing Ampersand

The amazing ampersand is one of my favorite typographic characters to play with. Have you ever noticed the great variety of ways it appears?

Type designers have been able to inject a wide range of personality into this single glyph. So much so, that at times it can seem like several different characters.

The ampersand came into existence way back in the first century A.D. as a combination of the letters E and T into a ligature. Et happens to be the Latin word for—you guessed it—'and.' If you care to read more about the ampersand's long and storied history and view a visual evolution of it's design, Adobe has a very comprehensive article.

In today's world, each and every font face has an ampersand design, and many have completely different looks for the roman and italic versions. If I asked you to write an ampersand, the roman version is probably the one you'd probably draw.

Perpetua bold

The italic version of the ampersand is where we see the greatest variety. The mark in many serif faces looks more like an upper or lowercase 'E,' depending on the font, and tends to be quite fancy and full of flourish. Slab serif and sans serif font faces, on the other hand, tend to simply use a slanted version of the typical roman style.

Italic versions of (clockwise from top-left) Bel MT, Garamond, Didot and Glypha

Here are some artistic representations I found inspiring:

Ampersand art print by Bill Pyle | Society6, available for purchase here.

Ampersands poster on Behance by Brad Henderson

Snowman-style ampersand by Joe Francis of Typophile

Ampersands by Randy Jones on Typophile

These little guys make me so happy, you'd think they were smiley faces. They're versatile. They add flair. They're just so curvy, flowing and delightful!  The ampersand is a wonderful typographic tool to have in your design arsenal.

How have you used the ampersand in a creative manner? Share with us!