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Really liked this, so many different variations on one little character.. Thats why I love typography..

The first one is the only one that actually resembles an ampersand! The others either bear enough resemblance to other characters to cause confusion, or don’t look enough like an ampersand to be easily identifiable and could cause readers to wonder what character it actually is.

Flash design is all well and good, but function must come first, no matter how funky the form is.

You mention that number 9 looks like some kind of crazy e – it should! An ampersand is just a contracted version of the letters “et”, or French for “and”

Dan Cederholm posted a similar article yesterday on Simple Bits showcasing Ampersands in different OSs

http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2008/08/14/ampersands.html

there must be dozens of these ‘ampersand’ articles, all of them simply copying the same ampersands from post to post.

again, hard to believe these were among the ‘top 10′ articles selected?

also, we’ve been seen these top 10 articles for days now, so it looks more like top 20 than top 10, is smashing magazine running on fumes now that it resorts to these quick, save the day kind of posts?

hhmm…

i was hoping for actually designed ampersand… not just characters from a bunch of fonts smashing mag has already posted…

I do have my windows character map

I’ve seen plenty of ampersands that have been modified and improved on in print / graphic design… why not focus on those

im dont have an interest with ampersand.great effort anyways

not French, but Latin

@hector, its the top 20 top 10 lists week ;)

I kinda disagree with Gordon & Josh. I’d admit that, on their own some of those ampersands are funky enough to be a little confusing. But I believe that all of these are readily identifiable as ampersands when viewed in context.

I’m drawn to ampersand as an easy, fun, & funky way to give your content a bit more of a personal & casual feel. I’ve tried not to overdo it, but the ampersand is peppered throughout my 2Dolphins site and used often within my blog posts.

“Can you spot what typeface is used to display the ampersand in the image above?”

So what typeface was used on the large orange ampersand…did I miss the answer to this??

I like this article. One of the more uncommon topics.

Well written and interesting. choices/topic. Really had the feel of a SM post. This post is a strong contender.

Nice post! Thanks for drawing my attention to ampersands, I had never really looked at them in this light before. You quirky writing helped me see them in the fun light you obviously do!

I also would have to say that none of these ampersands would be confusing in context. Even having the word ‘and’ by itself on a blank space could be considered confusing, but it unlikely ever to happen, so I think that’s a moot point.

I’ll be paying more attention to ampersands from now on (just noticed the one in the footer on this page!)

Great article! This was funny, informative, and quirky. It made me laugh, and it educated me on an interesting topic. Nice job!

Great article. I can’t say I’ve ever particularly cared much about fonts (so long as it’s legible, I like it!). But I have to say this entertaining article has sparked my interest. The author was able to engage the interest of someone who never knew anything about (or cared about) the topic. Good work!

Great post. It really doesn’t matter if you agree which little ampersand is the cutest, this post is written in a style that excites interest and emotion for the subject … I’ll never look at an ampersand in the same way again . Great to see a font enthusiast with the writing flair of a wine buff. Good one Huw.

This is a fantastic article. Your writing style really draws you in and smashes a simple character into a fabulous series of stories and oddities. Thanks. Keep it up! (I’ve tried so hard not to care about things like font – but you just broke me)

Very interesting.

Try the italicized ampersand in Garamond. Pretty fancy.

@Vitaly + Sven:

I hope this isn’t the last guest article? I know there will be plenty of people quite disappointed if it is! :)

The ampersand for the font Walkway (you guys offered it for free a while back) is pretty awesome too.

@kleight: Looks like it. Think this was some sort of racket or something…. some of the “finalists” were pretty bad.

Oh well, I guess no one is perfect, including people who run websites. :P

I love this comment because people so frequently ignore the origins of anything we use or come in contact with. And after that piece of information you can look at the collection in an entirely new light.

A great, fun and cheeky take on the design of ampersands in fonts and typography.

Interesting article
I´ve used another (in my humble opinion) quite interesting ampersand in my logo:
The font is “Art Gothic Extra Bold”
http://www.pixelunddesign.de
Thomas108

Between the faux pas that is “it looks like a crazy ‘e’” and the fact that this is just another boring top-X-things article, I am completely disappointed. I gather that this is a guest article, but it speaks volumes of the lack of editorial rigidity on this site. An article that displays such blatant ignorance regarding the very character it’s supposed to be written on should not see the light of day.

Smashing Magazine: “We smash you with any information that comes our way, regardless of how retardedly inaccurate it may be.” Perhaps you could go with a shorter —and way sweeter— tagline, from now on. Smashing Magazine: “We haven’t a clue.”

Nice article!