Today’s ampersand is Courier New – lovingly reproduced out of tiny ampersands on a typewriter! Typewriters only come with one typeface, and they generally look like Courier. So there you go.
Hundreds and hundreds of tiny ampersands make up this one.

I said I wasn’t allowed to use a computer/photoshop, but I never said anything about a typewriter! Haha. I bought this from a charity shop in Wolverhampton over the summer for £6 and I must say it’s been a bit of a bargain! Works perfectly, and still hasn’t needed a new ribbon yet… although I think I’m pushing it, I do have to press the keys very hard =/ So I should scour the internet for one that fits it.

It’s a Remington/Sperry Rand Envoy 3, and after a little online digging I’ve found that it was made between 1969-1973. Which makes it much much older than I am! I love vintage finds like this, so pleased I randomly bought it. Typewriters really are ace, great for experimenting with, adding bits to collages, and generally looking quite cool and vintage in my room.

I just love how the spacing between letters (alright, kerning and tracking if you want to be proper) is never quite right on typewriters, it makes it so much more interesting than something typed on a computer. And about 10 hours longer. I wish I was around in the time when people still sent lovely handwritten or typewritten letters to each other, or when journalists and budding novelists used to hammer out lengthy pieces hunched over a typewriter, cigarette and Tipp-Ex in hand, taking hours and hours. (Do you remember tipp ex? oh em gee, school days, so much fun was had with pencil tins and tipp ex :D) Now we just bash out emails, blog posts, tweets, god knows what with such ease that it’s easy to forget. Being able to type used to be something that was aspirational!

Related Posts with Thumbnails