Various Ampersands

There's something about the ampersand that, for certain fonts, reminds me of the General Mills logo.

& have you nothing else to say on the topic?

hadn't thought about it for years but this is the style I adopted / copied / developed 40+ years ago - it comes so naturally I can't do anything else.

Excellent.

I like the poetica ones (near the bottom). However, they seem far enough from the norm that most people may not get what they are right away. I would have to give it some thought before ues.

Ethernautrix,

Thanks for posting this. I am in the process of revising my handwriting and always on the look out for new characters to include.

When I was much younger, I can remember seeing the famous Norfolk & Western Railway logo. Here was a creative use of an ampersand from the 1920s through the 1950s.

(I'd forgotten I'd posted this!) You're welcome. I'm glad some folks here enjoyed it.

Wow factorial. That is a great link. Thanks. I needed a new ampersand. I can't draw the standard one worth a hoot in a hailstorm. But I can draw the capital E with the wiggly thing balanced on it. I practiced a few lines of them tonight and they look bodacious.

Paddler

Here's my version.

The Gyle shopping centre just outside Edinburgh, has this as its logo. Everytime I pass, I want to shout out "it's an ampersand, not an E"

Click to view attachment

Interesting...mine looks very much like yours. It doesn't look much like a variation of the ones on the link...do you know where this type of ampersand originated from? I've used it forever...maybe i picked it up from one of my parents...i don't remember.
~Jas

I think it is a cursive plus: (+). I use it too - no idea where I learned it. I don't think we were taught it in school.

Paddler

I picked it up from my parents. I think its from one of the shorthand systems.

I'm not sure where I picked up the one I ended up using but it's a 4 (in case of differing fonts, the closed top triangular number four) rotated 180 degrees

Though since I've started with fountain pens and relearning how to write since my handwriting is atrocious, i shall more than likely adopt a new method.

Mine's a lot like yours, except that rather than one continuous vertical line that goes all the way through the middle, I make two smaller lines top and bottom.

This thread has just made me write a pageful of the saddest ampersands you've ever seen. The page looks like an army of potbellied dwarves marching through the snow into a ditch... I keep telling myself that practice makes perfect, but I seem to be practicing how to make deformed ampersands.

Doug

On a similar line I was so disappointed to learn that @ has such a boring name!

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few years back - seven to ten, I think - where they traced the history of the ampersand from its beginnings to its now entrenched use in email. I wish I'd kept it, the article was fascinating.

My favourite use is &c instead of etc..

for those who dont know, the ampersand is just a sexed up et. kind of an early latin shorthand, almost.

I've seen that variation in epistolatory novels, I think of the Victorian era. I like using &tc, which is somewhat redundant but has the advantage that people don't e-mail me back asking, "What did you mean by &c?"

Yeah, I thought I saw "&c." as "etc." or "et cetera" in American Civil War-era (late 1850s--mid-late 1860s) writings.

I use it that way myself on occasion, but that's usually when I'm at a computer. My handwritten ampersands are terrible.

For ampersands in the wild, see also:

http://ampersand.gosedesign.net/

It's been on my daily rotation for several weeks now.