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Project: Catharsis

Nag meets the Mythical Lizard.

For the BigBro, fellow Singaporean ambigram designer: Azahary Arif.

Old concept just re-discovered.

landmark post number 777

Based on Germany's football jersey at Euro'08. (Michael) Ballack, the German captain, wears number 13, while (Lukas) Podolski wears 20. Conceptualized while watching the Portugal-Germany quarter final which Germany won 3-2.

Salam to all! Just a quick update: for this month's nagfa's ambigram challenge (NAC) - more information: here - we have proposed two themes, surrounding 'Beijing Olympic 2008' and 'Superman'. Visitors and artists alike are encouraged to vote for their favourite designs for each theme. The artist(s) with the most popular designs will be invited as Guest Challengers in future instalments of NAC. The reason for this 'multi-challengers' format - not forgetting Daniel Dostal's upcoming one, too! - is so that instead of only one design proposal, concurrently-run NACs will allow artists with diversed opportunities to hone their ambigram designing skills.

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In the meantime, let us leave you with a quick ambigram depicting the two themes for this month's NAC:

A previous ambigram design depicting Batman and Superman:

s.t.u.c.k.

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Superman's stuck in the phone-booth
The Batmobile's stuck, refusing to move

Spiderman's stuck in the World Wide Web

While the Hulk's still stuck in his chilli crab

Catwoman's stuck cleaning a milk stain

Daredevil's stuck searching for his cane
Wonder Woman's stuck with the Great Sale wives

While Wolverine's stuck selling Ginsu knives

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We're all stuck in mediocrity

Muzzled Lions in this concrete city

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Or circus Lions in iron cages;

Superheroes in comic book pages.

The comic books out of print ages

ago, dog-eared and yellowed images

of sanctioned sedated silenced sages.

dune

...another ambulance design...

Another 'ambulance' reflection, submitted by Ed Xander of the UK.

To Fa, my lovely wife.

A couple of mini challenges submissions

Two more design submissions for our mini-challenge, The first is a further exploration for the 'JackDaniel's' reflection. The second is one for an 'ambulance' reflection. Thanks, guys!

'Old time - Old - No.7 - Brand' by Cy Reb Jr.

based on this: and...

'ambulance' by Paavo Pirinen

a.k.a. domino effect.

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the dead dragons have awoken

from their tarpits tombs, they

sigh a rekindled fiery breath

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the truth so sacred unspoken

hath borne an evil bloom; stay

chained to a funeral wreath

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the curse ne'er'll be broken

as we plummet into doomsday

meeting impending Death

A Malay equivalent of 'awesome', literally meaning 'horrible'. Could also mean 'great', 'awesome', and 'incredible', among others. Like its version English 'awesome', this word also provides an almost natural rotational symmetry: a-a, h-y, and 's' as its central pivot.

Capital of Poland.

A straight-forward ambigram of a common Malay/Arab male name: Yahya.

Special post: Frank Sinatra

A peek into nagfa's ambigram processes to conjure up a Frank Sinatra ambigram:

(please click image to enlarge)

A symbiotogram reading the legend's name and rotating into 'Doing.it.my.way'. Sketch.

nagfa's ambigram challenge (NAC) June 2008

Hi and salam to all,
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Firstly, the not-so-good news:

We understand that most viewers would have been wondering what happened on Saturday, when details of the promised 'special NAC' were not posted. We want to apologize to all who had been waiting patiently that that collaboration fell through. In a nutshell, we - the proposer and nagfa - had discussed how a special NAC could be organized to search for a worthy design logo for his ambigram-related webpage. The winning design would receive a token sum of cash. Nothing was set in concrete, though, as a better, more financialy-sound offer came by and that edition of NAC had to be cancelled. But, let's keep our fingers crossed; it could still happen in future.

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To accommodate for the lull time (we are still waiting for Daniel Dostal's NAC proposal), we would like to post two challenges:

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1) theme: Beijing Olympic 2008

As the Olympic torch only burns only once per leap year, and the ongoing media hype surrounding this controversial instalment of the Olympic reaches fever pitch, we would like to see designs commemorating the event. Designs could be simple ambigrams or reflections. Concept pieces would be nice, too. Or for the more adventurous ones, maybe a symbiotogram with words relating to the Olympic rotating into a witty protest, pessimistic/cynical sentiment... anything.

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2) theme: Superman

The second theme revolves around the superhero with the red speedo. We would love to see symbiotograms relating to him: Clarke Kent, Kryptonite, Lex Luther, Bizarro, red speedo, your own name, perhaps... anything.

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Please submit designs to:

nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com

hopefully before 25th of July (for allowance for us to compile them before August). Please also include the chosen word for the design, your name (pseudonym allowed), country of origin, and website/blog (if any). *Designers are allowed to send in more than one design/entry...All the best,

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Salam,

Nagfa: Naguib & Fadilah

Singapore

Recently, we came across a typical print ad in the newspaper. It was for an Australian coffee brand, Moccona,

which is giving away a free mug with every purchase. Interestingly, the design on the mug hinted of a very good ambigram (photograph of the print ad taken using camera-phone):

Unfortunately, the positioning of the free mug (in the print ad) didn't do justice to the ambigram. Below is our version, with what could be suitable phrases accompanying the ambigram design:

(especially for) you - (a coffee so) rich

After trying to solve our own 'armageddon-apocalypse' mini-challenge, we came across another suitable rotatuonal phrase solution for 'armageddon'. This now reads as 'Happy Birthday, Armageddon'.

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Now, perhaps another workable piece would be a Jack the Ripper-Armageddon lake reflection. Any takers?

Another post for Mr. Azahary Arif. Raw sketch sans extra adornments.

One formula, two configurations. Another possible formula with S as the pivot: b-et, a-e,ck-TR.

PowerPoint-assisted.

A piece for an Ambigram Mate and fellow Singaporean. (Sorry Big Bro, only managed a PowerPoint-assisted one; our scanner's gone kaput. Hope the formula would be a stepping stone for a more refined design by you.)

reflection: 'ambulance' solutions

For the longest time, the most elusive practical ambigram has been the reflection solution for the word 'ambulance'. We are honoured to showcase two solutions:

arif azahary (singapore)
txescu (catalunia)

One unifying characteristic with all languages based on the standard alphabetical system is that there is bound to be some naturally occurring palindromes, rotational ambigrams or reflections. The Malay language is no exception; two examples of names with natural vertical symmetry are 'HALIJAH' and 'HAFIZ SHAH'.

'halijah' by Azahary Arif (Singapore)

Personally, in the many branches of what are now conveniently refered to as 'ambigrams', we prefer the awkward-sounding 'symbiotogram'. This is the type where a word/phrase rotates into a different word/phrase. Other than its usage to highlight the concept of opposites, symbiotograms are also popularly used to combine two names - husband's-wife's being a good example - and as gifts for anniversaries, birthdays and/or as designs for a wedding invitation card.

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What we love about symbiotograms is their ease in hiding a hidden meaning, especially when the hidden idea has a somewhat ironic or witty 'punchline' when juxtaposed with the first word/ phrase.

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Some examples are our own 'world peace' rotating into 'a dead dream' and 'george w. bush' rotating into 'American jerk'.

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For this post, inspired by NastyBasty's style, is the word 'nightmare' - a frightening dream - rotating into its opposite, the most blissful of dreams... (?)

Back to basics: ambigram to depict the spectrum of opposites - 'betray' and 'trusted'.

A design dedicated to two of the most dynamic leaders in South East Asia, whose charisma and leadership had taken their respected countries to greater heights. Sometimes at loggerheads, most times full of unsaid respect for each other, the world would be poorer without (Minister Mentor Lee) Kuan Yew (Singapore) and (Tun Dr.) Mahathir (Mohamad) (Malaysia).

Two designs. Subject phrase inspired from one of the novel titles found in Borders.

The first design was crafted as such to fit a rectangle. While the second one depicts a scale, a play on irony, hinting on the actual characteristic King Henry was (in)famous for. Made using PowerPoint.

And our previous (over-the-top) version:

ambigram: jacqui

ambigram: iron.maiden

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A nagfa version. Previous takes: by Brad Williams (here) and Awangpurba (here, also below).

'iron maiden' by awangpurba (malaysia)

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Already on the topic, why not a reflection?

reflection: iron.maiden
the original logo