nagfa's Ambigram Challenge September '06

The moment has arrived for the second instalment of nagfa's Ambigram Challenge (NAC) - the first worldwide challenge-invitation for ambigram enthusiasts to share and showcase their individual style and personality. (click here for more information)

This month's phrase: 'myths and legends'
*In our process of receiving and compiling the entries for the first NAC, we were pleasantly thrilled by the beautiful forms, fonts and serifs of each and every design, something which we would like to highlight in this month's challenge. This month's phrase, we hope, could be relevant and appropriate enough to inspire artists to come up with bolder and more exciting interpretation. Note: the 'and' could pose interesting solutions - by retaining the whole word or by using any forms of the ampersand ('&').

This month's theme: 'song titles/albums/bands/singers'
*Another level after the first theme, this month's theme again allows artists the space and freedom to choose from a wide field (from ANY countries, language or era) and to present in any one of the ambigram styles available.

please submit designs to:
nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com
hopefully before the 22nd of September (for allowance for us to compile them before October). Please also include the chosen word for the design (especially for 'theme'), your name (pseudonym allowed), country of origin, and website/blog (if any).

Nag and Fa sincerely thank you for participating and sharing your works in NAC. May this effort be an impetus for a micro-world peace and unity among people from diversed backgrounds.

salam,
nagfa
singapore

ambigram: trainee-teacher

Present Nag. Former Fa (she's a qualified teacher now). A Happy & Pleasant Teachers' Day for teachers anywhere and everywhere - from Nag & Fa. (1st September in Singapore).

ambigram: architect

The answer to this:

The lead male protagonists in the three films are architects (!)

ambigram: intelligence

NAC August '06 theme

It's out! The long-awaited posting for the first instalment of nagfa's ambigram challenge (NAC)! These are the entries for the given theme: film titles. Nagfa - Naguib and Fadilah - extends our sincerest thanks to all artists involved in making this a successful first.

For more information and galleries of each artist, do check out their links under 'Ambigram Mates' in the sidebar..

'aeon flux'
amafirlian
(belgium)

.'dr. strangelove'
fraga
(brazil)
.

'snakes on a plane'
skadam
(canada)
.

'(the) shining'
homero
(chile)
&

'shrek'
homero
(chile)
.

'the godfather'
cascarrabias
(mexico)
.

'heroe'
serpiente
(mexico)
.

'stand by me (ambigram)'
&

'stand by me (reflection)'
nagfa
(singapore)
.

'the lord of the rings'
syfi
(u.s.a.)
.

'blade-trinity'
bill densmore
(u.s.a.)

NAC August '06 phrase

The submitted entries for August's NAC. The given phrase was 'world of ambigram'. To all artists involved to make this a successful first attempt, we - Naguib and Fadilah - appreciate and thank you all for your kind time and support.

The entries are arranged alphabetically according to the artists' countries of origin. Enjoy..

amafirlian
(belgium)
.

skadam
(canada)
.

homero
(chile)
.

'mundo del ambigrama'
alberto portacio
(colombia)
.

amit
(india)
.

rajdeep
(india)
.

roopak suri
(india)
.

&

serpiente
(mexico)
.

nagfa
(singapore)
.

paxy
(singapore)
.

syfi
(u.s.a)
.
bill densmore
(u.s.a)

ambigram: i'm.not.movin'!

'I'm not moving!'.

The location: A city bus, Montgomery, Alabama, USA.
The date: December 1, 1955
The person: Rosa Lee Parks
The consequence: Arguably, the turning point in the civil rights movement

oscillation ambigram: melayu/inggeris?

Could be read as 'Melayu' (Malay) or 'Inggeris' (English). A piece on identity and self-reflection on the Malay community and language.

ambigram: malays-indians-chinese

The three 'native' races of Singapore. The physical components of racial harmony in Singapore.

ambigram: diini.aimaan

ambigram: juni.iffah

Done as an impromptu 'let's entertain these kids before they get rowdy' art lesson, for Diini Aimaan (10 years' old) and his younger sister Juni Iffah (7 years' old), both Nag's cousin.

John Langdon's favourite nagfa pieces

Email from John Langdon (dated April 8 2006):

Hi,

I spent a few more minutes with your ambigrams this morning. Just wanted to say that 'Sugar&Spice' is really wonderful.

I love your sense of letterforms as decorative art, especially in 'to-nur-saiyidah-shariff'.

And the idea of the swastika as a YH is great. Keep up the good work!

John

Things are as they appear to be; and they are otherwise.

Another weekend of Ambigram T-shirts by nagfa! Our new designs are out. The third batch of designs will be focussed on designs for the girls..

Design : the.militant
Type : rotational ambigram
Sizes : M & L
Colours : red on black, yellow on navy
Price : SGD$22

To order, simply email to us at: nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com with the following details: quantity, size and colour. Comments and other enquiries may also be emailed to the same email address.

ambigram T-shirt: the.militant (black)

ambigram T-shirt: the.militant (navy)

Design : urban ninjas
Inspiration : the art/extreme sport of parkour
Type : rotational ambigram
Sizes : M & L
Colours : red on white
Price : SGD$22

To order, please email to us at: nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com with the following details: quantity and size. Comments and other enquiries may also be emailed to the same email address.

ambigram T-shirt: urban.ninjas

Design : liberation!
Inspiration : rasta-culture and the songs of Bob Marley and Big Mountain
Type : rotational ambigram
Sizes : M & L
Colours : green on yellow
Price : SGD$22

To order, please email to us at: nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com with the following details: quantity and size. Comments and other enquiries may also be emailed to the same email address.

ambigram T-shirt: liberation! (yellow)

ambigram: jihad-putsch

Two words with modern meanings so distorted they brink on taboo..

Jihad: An Arabic word, which originally means 'to struggle' or 'to put in effort'; &
Putsch: From the Middle-German language which means 'to thrust',

Now both words connote an uprising, a mutiny, a revolt or a coup.. The dynamics of Distortion.

ambigram: trivial-pursuit

Trivial Pursuit. One of the world's most popular board games fuelled by a deep knowledge of trivia and factoids.

Talking of trivia, nagfa asks: What is the similarity between the films Lakehouse, Click and My Super Ex-Girlfriend?

Post your guesses on 'comments'. The answer will be posted ('ambigrammed', of course) later this month.

ambigram: hadijah.rahmat

Associate Professor Hadijah Rahmat, Assistant Head, Malay Division, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. One of the most prominent figures in the field of Malay Language in Singapore. Nag's present lecturer. Fa's father's former colleague..

ambigram: silence

The Spectrum of Silence:
the manifestation of calmness
the utmost form of agreement
the ultimate sign of weakness
the hidden storm of discontent

reflection: the.movement

Hi, welcome to Ambigrams by nagfa!

To regular visitors, thank you for your appreciated continued support and encouragement to us. We will continue to try to dish out more original designs on this blog - albeit, not as often - as school has started. Do check out the first NAC showcase late August.. and its next instalment in September..

To new visitors, this blog is dedicated to the art of ambigrams - a word, no doubt, made famous (and thus, mainstream?) by Dan Brown's Angels & Demons - and its different forms. This blog may be divided into three main parts:

1. nagfa ambigram gallery:
Just scroll down and/or check the archives for our own ambigram designs. One of the most Frequently Asked Questions posed to us is 'Do you use any softwares to design your ambigrams?' Answer: All our designs are personally conceptualized and go through the initial hand drawn sketchings, a few stages of drafting and tweaking to perfect the fonts/proportions/spacings, before scanning and filling up the colours using Adobe Photoshop. Some of our designs, though are posted in their mere hand-drawn glory *eg: m.naguib-ambiguity. Thus, our designs are all unique and original.

2. nagfa ambigram T-shirts:
We have recently launched the first designs in our line of ambigram T-shirts (the first in Singapore!), where the designs can be read from right side up and/or upside down. Currently, these T-shirts are only available in Singapore, but we are sorting out this to make them available elsewhere, too. We are hoping to come up with designs from diversed inspirations and street cultures: Parkour, Rastamani, the beach culture, skaters, and mostly pertaining to the teenage-anti-order-angst. The cost of each T-shirt is only SGD$22 and each design is exclusive and limited in quantity.
(For information or achives, please proceed to the sidebar with 'nagfa ambigram T-shirt stuff)

For those interested in having your own personalised ambigram designs, we do take requests. The most common ambigram requests are:
i - name rotates to same name *eg: NaguibNgadnan
ii - name rotates to another name *eg: AlfianSaat-LeeKuanYew
iii - couples' names rotating to same couples' names *eg: Jianen-Xiaoen
The cost for the designs starts from SGD$20, depending on intricacies.

For requests, orders, information on the T-shirt and personalised ambigrams, email to us at:
nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com

3. nagfa ambigram challenge (NAC):
This is an exclusive only to this blog, the first effort worldwide, we think, to invite ALL ambigram artists/enthusiasts to a monthly ambigram-designing challenge.
(For information or archives, please proceed to the sidebar with 'nagfa ambigram challenge')

Sincerely, we, nagfa: Naguib and Fadilah, hope that you have a pleasant time surfing through our blog. Do leave comments, and please visit us again..

salam (peace),
nagfa
singapore

ambigram: united nations-silence's golden

A human being has eyes and a heart, to see and to feel. Sadly not all.

Why another minute of silence to add on to a lifetime of inaction?