nagfa's Ambigram Challenge May 2007

...and suddenly, before you know it, sprung another nagfa Ambigram Challenge (NAC). This May instalment of NAC will revert to its original format: one phrase, *limitless entry, and a sharing of designs and *comments.

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This month's phrase: 'shark attack'

* there are several motivations for the choosing of this phrase: (1) after the success of the John-Langdon NAC, and under the guidance of his comments and critiques, we feel it is opportune time to showcase what we have learnt on the criteria for designing a succesful ambigram (namely Readability, Consistency of style, Integrity (recognizable presence and respectful treatment) of each letter, and Attractiveness of the word as an entirety), (2) for this NAC, we are allowing multiple entries from a single artist as we foresee various manifestations / ambigram types for this phrase, (3) the rather 'do-able' solution allows new/beginning artists to participate in this month's NAC, making it a 'democratic' - not an elitist - community, and (4) funnily enough, Channel5 - a local Singaporean TV station / broadcaster - is showing a B-grade 'creature feature' campy movie of the same name as I am typing this post(!)

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Note: There won't be a formal voting for the favourite pieces, but we do encourage comments and critiques, if any. One reason is because we would already have a Guest Challenger for the June NAC.

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Please submit design to: nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com before the 22nd of the month. Please also include your name (pseudonyms allowed), country of origin, and links (if any)..

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salam

nagfa - naguib & fadilah

singapore

ambigram: advance

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A simple design (it's always simple once you've nailed the formulae) done in 20 minutes.

reflection: duca

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A 45-degrees reflection inspired by a John Langdon logo: here. A spinonym as well!

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For the Dinda Duyung, on our one year together since engagement.

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My love for her

endures forever..

Special Post: John Langdon's Reply

Excerpts from the email exchanges between nagfa and John Langdon:

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Dear Naguib and Fadilah,

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we, on behalf of all of the designers in the ambigram-loving NAC community, would like to extend a big Thank you (this phrase happens to be the challenge for April NAC) for setting aside some of your time to look at the entries and give progressive comments. This NAC experience had opened up our eyes and we understand that we need to improve on some details.

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You and all the entrants are, of course, certainly welcome. It’s my pleasure to take part in your friendly international competition — like the ambigram Olympics!

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we would also like to convey to you the designers' wishes (those not in the Top10) if you may come by and take a look at their pieces, and maybe give a short, short comment on their pieces. afterall, 'it's not every day that someone of your calibre to be of such close proximity to them', as one of them put it..

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There is a bit of pain involved for me in critiquing other people’s work — especially people I don’t know. I think what I’d like to do is make a general comment, and then single out a couple of very pleasing pieces. There are many exciting pieces of art among the entries, so I truly hope not to discourage any of the artists — in fact, I greatly enjoy the richness that many of the colors and textures and symbolic and pictorial elements bring to the ambigrams — they seem so much more lively than my own black and white efforts.

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What is missing in many of the ambigrams is readability, and an overlapping, and closely related, quality that I would call clarity. I really do not believe it is enough to say that an ambigram is successful when it needs a caption that says what the word is. Even when each letter inverts successfully, I would really like to see more ambigrams in the future where there is enough space between (and sometimes within) the letters to allow them to be recognized more easily. That is what I mean by clarity. People are used to reading whole words at a time, not struggling through identifying one lettter at a time, and then finally arriving at a word. Ambigrams begin with the idea of breaking rules, it’s true, but readability depends on rules. Ambigrams, in my opinion, should not break any more than is absolutely necessary. Each mark on the page should contribute to the reading of the word, and certainly not detract from it. Once that clarity and readability has been achieved, then color and texture and illustration can only enhance the audience’s experience. Gef’s ambigram has beautiful clarity, as does Martijn’s, and Amafirlian’s almost does, too. Alberto’s has very nice space throughout, but the decorative curlicues do complicate the situation a little. Jacquie’s letterforms are clear and easily recognizeable. Their unsophisticated shapes are matched nicely by the feeling of the folk-art sewing look. Opening up the letterspacing in the NGULARI area would make it a bit more accessible. I think the most charming of all is Edd’s. Each letter has integrity and identifies itself very well, with the one exception of the L, whose identifying horizontal stroke(s) are a bit overwhelmed by the festive dance all around. I think that’s about the most joyful ambigram I’ve ever seen.

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Thank you all for participating, and for your patience with my critiques.

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Peace to you all.
John

ambigram: superfreaks

reflection: fattah

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A simple design for Abdul Fattah, Nag's cousin: elder brother of Jojie and younger brother of Abang Faisal.

reflection: teapot

ambigram: taxpayer

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Aaaah... The meaning of our existence: as taxpayers.

ambigram: please-don't.()-a.seal!

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A take on a 'natural ambigram', don't mind the slightly whimsical meaning of the phrase.

ambigram: cerita.rakyat

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Cerita ('story' or 'tale' in Malay) rakyat ('citizen' or 'folk' in Malay): folktales.

ambigram: sastera.sejarah

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Sastera ('literature' in Malay) Sejarah ('history' in Malay) refers to the works of literature concerning the history/anthropology of (usually Malay) civilizations.

ambigram: bravery&-blitzkrieg
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We've done a blitzkrieg ambigram and a bravery one. So we figured, why not try to combine those two.

reflection: echo

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An updated and stylized design from Nag's old portfolio: a logo for a publication on creative writing. The original logo has got a fountain pen as the horizontal line with ink squirts at its nib. The outward circular motion represents the sound waves/resonation (themed, of course, from the word 'echo' itself).

ambigram: BillyJ.Kramer

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Billy J. Kramer from the band The Dakotas

Bad To Me: here

The Beatles' version : here

Another song with similar lyric and upbeat melody:

Freddie and The Dreamers - You Were Made For Me: here

And a poem with similar theme:

Percy Byshhe Shelley - Love's Philosophy: here

ambigram: backstabber

After the festivities of the John Langdon-inspired NAC, we return to our regular monthly challenge: the April 2007 NAC. The phrase was 'Thank You', as a nod to all participants and visitors alike who contributed in one way or another to make the past NAC a success!

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Frankly, this posed phrase was also to coax out potential k-k solutions, that being arguably one of THE most difficult combinations. To add a little spice to this month's challenge, we invite participants and visitors alike to vote your favourite design. The first design (below) - from hosts/organizers nagfa - is not eligible for voting:

nagfa (singapore)

Without further ado, the entries. The designer with the most votes (voting ends on May 15th 2007) will be invited to be the guest challenger for NAC June 2007. So do cast your vote and leave your comments. Enjoy!

jordi (catalunia) manolo (spain)

merfat (chile)

homero (chile)

martijn slegers a.k.a. ambigramateur (holland)

tom banwell (usa)

mark palmer a.k.a. WowTattoo (usa)

jinoe (philippines)

alberto portacio (colombia)

alessandro (italy)

jacquie (usa)

amafirlian (belgium)

txescu (catalunia)

fraga (brazil)

scalpod (usa)

rickxard (austria)

ambigram:des.goh

ambigram & reflection: dice

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Another word with double symmetries: horizontal and vertical.

ambigram: 17/4

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Was marking the students' essay the other day (nag and fa are both teachers), and realised that the date - 17th April - could be naturally ambigrammed.

reflection: naguib-&-fadilah
reflection: naguib-&-fadilah(refined)

ambigram: kamal
ambigram: michelle
ambigram: nuha

ambigram: derrick

reflection: satan

A new type of ambigram (45-degree reflection), started by Tom Banwell
and made famous by the other ambigramistas from the Flickr Ambigram Group. Personally, more challenging than the 180-degree rotational ambigram - maybe due to the unfamiliarity to the technique - and seems slightly limited due to the 1 letter-to 1 letter conversion. Hoping to see more evolution to this ambigram type... 

Singularity NAC: The Model Answer

ambigram: John Langdon's singularity

ambigram: weird-realm

reflection: korean

reflection: synonym

ambigram: the.great.beyond

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REM's music video of the song The Great Beyond, taken from the cult film 'Man On The Moon': here.

ambigram:tom.banwell

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Another active ambigram designer from the much-respected Flickr Ambigram Group. Currently, he is also organizing a 45-degrees Ambigram Competition: the NEXUS Competition.

ambigram: shariffah-ayesha-almehoar

Commissioned piece.

ambigram: m.faizal.&-mariana

commissioned piece

ambigram: hartini&-hamidon

commissioned piece.