I follow Ellen Lupton on Twitter (@ellenLupton) so saw a recent tweet of hers about Font Aid IV: Coming Together.

The US-based Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) are putting together a font made entirely of ampersands, designed by loads of different designers from around the world. (Hence it's name, Coming Together.)

They'll then sell the resulting font via MyFonts, with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders who are one of the many organisations helping out in Haiti at the moment. SOTA are on the hunt for submissions at the moment, so I had a go …

My contribution is based fairly closely on the 'et' from which the ampersand shape derives and is (loosely) made up of a heart shape and a kiss. Ahhhh!

I tried to make it simple but with a bit of thought behind it – though only time will tell if it's good enough to be part of the font or not.

If you've got the mad Illustrator skillz, why not spare half an hour or so to create an ampersand?

Here's what you need to do to take part:
> Submit a black and white "ampersand" icon.
> It should be a vector image file, not a bitmap.
> Keep it simple, not too crazy.
> Send it in EPS format to fontaid@typesociety.org by 01/29/10.

(Remember to check back on MyFonts and buy the font once it's ready!)