:: <\/span>Double Daggers<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

GOTTA LOVE THE GLYPHS, NO. 1<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Beautifully Designed Anicillary Character Gives Me Pause<\/span><\/strong>
Yes, it’s true, the name of my business,\u00a0Ampers&\u00ae Studio<\/em>, is centered around, and includes, an\u00a0ampersand<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(&) character. Not so surprising. I am, after all, a typographer. And what typographer doesn’t love ampersands? I’ve written about them\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong>.

But in this instance, the letterform giving me pause is that third-order reference mark used in punctuation, a.k.a. the\u00a0double dagger<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(\u2021), pictured here in a graphic I came across on\u00a0Typography.com<\/a><\/strong>. (And isn’t it lovely?<\/em>) The graphic accompanies an article about\u00a0Reference Marks<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Daggers come from that archipelago of typographic symbols known as reference marks, which refer readers elsewhere for explanatory or exegetic notes. The traditional first-order reference mark is the\u00a0asterisk<\/em>\u00a0(*)\u2026.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And that, my friends, makes fascinating reading for typography fanatics such as myself (seriously). If you love type, too, you might enjoy reading more from\u00a0<\/em>H&FJ News’<\/strong>\u00a0article,\u00a0House of Flying Reference Marks, or Quillon & Choil,\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/strong>.*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Dire Dagger Dillema<\/span><\/strong>
This glyph, in particular, happened to catch my eye because of a situation in a recent project I’d been working on. You see, an\u00a0asterisk<\/em>\u00a0had already been used within the project’s text, as had the\u00a0dagger<\/em>\u00a0(the second-order reference mark). So when my client requested to add in a\u00a0third<\/em>\u00a0reference set, I used a\u00a0double dagger<\/em>, which is standard operating procedure in typography.

Well, as it happens, the\u00a0dagger<\/em>\u00a0had been used to indicate those\u00a0deceased<\/em>\u00a0individuals mentioned within the text (which, if you think about it, is kind of ironic…). Anyway, to use the\u00a0double dagger<\/em>\u00a0as a reference for a distinguished position held, even though proper, somehow didn’t seem right.\u00a0Further, it was difficult to tell who had been honored and who had passed on!<\/em>\u00a0(This would not do at all.) So instead, I threw the rules of typography right out the window (gasp!), and went with a lovely\u00a0lozenge<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0diamond (\u25ca<\/em>), which seems like a much more distinguished mark to use for signifying a distinguished position. So forgive me, my mentors \u2014 who taught me the differences between, and proper usage of, EM- EN- and regular ol’ dashes \u2014 I know the situation called for a\u00a0double dagger<\/em>, but “sometimes you just gotta do whatcha gotta do, eh?”

*<\/strong>Check out the asterisked bit at the end of\u00a0H&FJ’s article<\/a>, an advisory notice from the<\/em>\u00a0New Oxford English Dictionary\u00a0on pronunciation. (Don’t you just love it? :)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *
ED. NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>This entry was first\u00a0posted on\u00a0Blogger<\/em>, under the handle \u201campersandblogger,\u201d in June 2009.\u00a0\u00a0: :\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>kf, 1\/4\/19<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

:: Double Daggers GOTTA LOVE THE GLYPHS, NO. 1 A Beautifully Designed Anicillary Character Gives Me PauseYes, it’s true, the name of my business,\u00a0Ampers&\u00ae Studio, is centered around, and includes, an\u00a0ampersand\u00a0(&) character. Not so surprising. I am, after all, a typographer. And what typographer doesn’t love ampersands? I’ve written about them\u00a0here. But in this instance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,20,52,63,6],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-ampers","category-blogger-post","category-design","category-glyphs","category-typography","tag-typography","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"\n