Ampersand Carousels
Wood Typography
Designer: Sarah Addy
School: College For Creative Studies (2015)
School: College For Creative Studies (2015)
For a senior typography class, I was tasked with creating wooden type. One of the most beautiful characters in the English language is the ampersand. Typically designers use one of four different styles of ampersands: calligraphy/italic, traditional, contemporary, or casual. Each style can include vast numbers of representations but can be identified by a few specific characteristics. Just like a wooden horse on a circus carousel, every ampersand is unique. These ampersand "carousels" capture the essence of the handcrafted horses in the form of spinning type.
To start, I took 2 sheets of wood, and glued them together to form a thicker piece. I then cut the wood into 4 squares; one for each ampersand. I printed the letterforms on a large format printer, then used carbon paper to trace them onto the wood. To cut the letterforms, I used a bandsaw, and sanded them down with a belt sander. The smaller areas were sanded by hand. The ampersands were fixed onto a lazy-susan mechanism, and I put a stain on to give a nice finish.
Sandra helping me test the scale!
