Ambigrams by nagfa

Saturday, June 13, 2009

nagfa ambigram challenge (NAC) December 2008

Hi and salam to all!

At last, the compilation for NAC December 2008. Our Guest Challenger was Alessandro Pocaterra from Italy and the theme was Leonardo Da Vinci.

Before we showcase the submitted entries, we present Alessandro's own solution (below). It is a reflection ambigram reading 'Da Vinci', which at the same time, depicts a stylised rendition of the the famous 'The Last Supper'. Jesus in the centre with two of his apostles to his left and right.

Da Vinci by Alessandro Pocaterra
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Now,we present the Top 3 entries, as chosen by the Guest Challenger:

#NO. 1:

Da Vinci by Homero

#NO. 2:

Leonardo Da Vinci by Daniel Dostal

#NO. 3:

Leonardo by NastyBasty

And the rest of the entries, in no particular order:

Leonardo by Krzystof Sliwa

Virgin of the rocks by Adi

Rinascimento (Renaissance) by Homero

Mona Lisa by Rico Frans

Leonardo Da Vinci by Robert Maitland

The Universal Man by Diego Colombo

Leonardo Da Vinci by Dave Williams

Da Vinci by Daniel Dostal

vitruvian man by daan juttmann

Da Vinci rotating into Painter by Blake Walker

Leonardo Da Vinci by Daan Juttmann

monalisa-gioconda by txescu
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We would like to extend our heart-felt thank you to Guest Challenger Alessandro Pocaterra for his time and patience. And of course to all contributors who had made this NAC another successful one.

Though this would be the last official NAC, do visit us again for more information on other similar Ambigram contests / challenges being held in the internet realm.

We take our humble leave from NAC. Thank you all.

Salam and take care,

nagfa: Naguib & Fadilah (& baby Nayla)

Labels: alessandro pocaterra, ambigram, da vinci, Guest Challenger, leonardo da vinci, NAC December 2008, nagfa

Sunday, December 07, 2008

nagfa ambigram challenge (NAC) December 2008

Right on the heels of the recently-ended NAC (nagfa ambigram challenge), let's keep the momentum going by proceeding to yet another challenge. This time, we present the Guest Challenger, none other than Alessandro Pocaterra of Italy, and winner of this previous NAC, in his own words:

I am Alessandro, a teenager of 39, in love with ambigrams since I read Scott Kim's article on Scientific American eons ago. I prefer symbio(togram)s (where you can read upside down another word/sentence) and very simple "no frills" ones. To digitalize ambigrams, I use Inkscape, the open (and better) version of CorelDraw. I'm kind of lazy: if an ambigram comes out from the pen in ten minutes I refine it on the computer. Otherwise I leave the effort to somebody else and pick up a book. Reading is my first hobby. I'm fond of self growth, EFT and other psychological techniques, mathematics, drawing, informatics, Net surfing searching for info about the incredible possibility of our brain, stone balancing.

Since I was a child my dream was to be a genius but I am not smart enough. Preferred sentence: "If you want a better World, do it!" by me. My whole life is a symbio. I had a 180 degrees rotation in 2004 during the Camino de Santiago, a 800km walk in Northern Spain. Over there I met Susann, a wonderful woman who will give me a child next March. I discovered that life is great and really better than it seems. No television at home as a choice since then. I was a microcontroller programmer till some months ago, then I've been promoted to Innovation Manager, whatever that is. I'll put an ambigram as name/logo for a new device that my company is producing. There was a page of mine with a number of ambis but it's now lost in digital space: the Net Gods made it disappear without telling me anything. I'll try to put on something in the short future.

Being Italian, my NAC theme is "Leonardo da Vinci".

Looking forward to good ambigrams!

Alessandro

Please submit designs to:
nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com
hopefully before 15th of January (for allowance for us to compile them mid-February). 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,

Salam,
Nagfa: Naguib & Fadilah
Singapore

Labels: alessandro pocaterra, da vinci, Guest Challenger, NAC, NAC December 2008, nagfa

Monday, March 10, 2008

ambigram: nastybasty-ambigram

ambigram: nastybasty-ambigram (draft)
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Two versions of. Something for NAC's latest Guest Challenger, NastyBasty of Germany. His challenge will be posted within the next two days.

Labels: ambigram, Guest Challenger, NAC, nagfa, nastybasty

Friday, January 04, 2008

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: