Ambigrams by nagfa

Thankee big-big to you, the Constant Visitors, for having waited so long for this post. We present to you the entries for Guest Challenger Homero Larrain's NAC. His challenge phrase was 'white rabbit' and we have received an astounding 35 (!!!) designs from over 20 different artists worldwide.

Let us firstly present the Guest Challenger's own solution:

homero larrain (chile)

'conejo.blanco': white rabbit in Spanish by Homero Larrain (Chile)

Without further ado, Homero Larrain, in his own words:

Finally I have chosen the ambigram that I like the most. It wasn't an easy job, but I had a great time doing it. First of all, I'd like to thank and congratulate all the artists who had submitted their designs to this NAC, because in spite of the tricky phrase that I proposed, the results were impressively good and creative, and I have learned a lot contemplating and analyzing them, trying to choose only one (!!!) as the winner of this round.

Here are four of my most favorite designs, and a brief comment on each one of them. In some cases, I have made some suggestions on how I think that these ambigrams could be improved; I want to make clear that I'm doing this in a very humble way, and if anyone disagrees or wants to add something, his opinion is always welcome.

Diego Colombo - whiterabbit2: This is a very good design, very stylish and readable. It shows a very consistent pair of b's, and an interesting solution for a central R. The rounded terminations look harmonic, they give this design a very professional look. Personally I think this ambigram can be improved using a bigger R, and maybe taking advantage of this central letter to make a shift in the level of the second word, in order to separate both words more effectively.

diego colombo (italy)

Merfat: A cleverly designed ambigram, the grouping of letters applied by Merfat could be used in a variety of styles and it would work nicely too. Maybe this design could be simplified to make it easier to read: the curls could be replaced for small spikes that would connect the stems, forming the letters, but without distracting the eye. A good example of what I am trying to say here is the h in white, the curl doesn't seem to connect effectively both vertical strokes. The first t works better as a lower case than an upper case, I would omit the upper ornament, and in seek of consistency in style, I would try to use a lower case t in rabbit too.

merfat (chile)

José Pérez: This is a very attractive, strong design, I spent a while observing it. It's curious how the word rabbit is done here, seems like the A and the first B are sharing one vertical stroke. I like what was done with the R and e, very original, I think a similar trick could be done with an uppercase E, it would be interesting to see how it works in this context. The main issue with this ambigram is that it can be a little cryptic, I'm not sure if I could read it if I didn't know before hand what it was about.

jose perez (spain)

... and the artist with the best design:

... Kevin Pease. I love this ambigram. It's so beautiful, smooth and easy to read. The bunny faced a is a really clever, yet subtle touch: only on a second or third look did I notice this nice detail. Every combination and inversion in this ambigram is successfuly achieved: the hi / bi is nicely done, marking the difference between the h and the b with a very precise design of the central stroke. The pair of b's works together perfectly.

kevin pease (usa)

So, a big applause to all artists for having solved the 'white rabbit' NAC with Homero Larrain. A special congratulation to Kevin Pease, with the most outstanding ambigram, and the invitation to be the Guest Challenger in the next round of NAC. We will email you with the details.

Meanwhile, here are the rest of the entries. nagfa thank you all for making this another successful and well-received instalment of NAC. Enjoy: