'Romanized Kufic': jack the ripper

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After our recent experimentations in Kufic designing, make that pseudo-Kufic, we realise that our processes and presentations may demystify and betray the actual difficulty in the making of the authentic Kufic pieces. We have to admit that with the letters in Romanized alphabet easily manipulated to fit a 5x3 grid (the 'w' and 'm' maybe a 5x5 one), constructing a square - or at least a rectangle - portrayal of a word is indeed simple with the littlest of tweakings. The same thing could not be said of the proper Arabic Kufic; each letter has its own size difference in relation with another letter. Designers of Arabic Kufic have our deepest admiration, bar none. It is therefore, due to the same sentiment, that we try to design 'un-square' or 'un-rectangle' poor cousins of the esteemed Arabic Kufic designs. This can be seen from the above 'jack the ripper' design (inspiration: see previous post) where we attempted to construct a symmetrically-correct outline of the notorious moniker in history.

Romanized Kufic: jack the ripper2

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Further exploration of the Kufic art also opened our eyes to some similarities between this Middle-Eastern art and intricate art offerings from the Mayas and Aztecs, Minoas and Greeks, the Gaelics and even the signature stamp/seal from the Japanese and Chinese paintings. Come to think of it, a modern version of the Kufic art can be seen in today's modern technologies, especially the circuit-patterns on waffle-discs and circuit boards!

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Below is our ambigram version of the same subject:

ambigram: jack.the-ripper