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.

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

.homero larrain (chile)

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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diego colombo (italy)

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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.

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merfat (chile)

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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.

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jose perez (spain)

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... and the artist with the best design:

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... 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.

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kevin pease (usa)

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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.

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

AiDash (philippines)
ruel masacayan (philippines)

ruel masacayan (philippines)

time consumer (philippines)

lucas B05 (poland)

matriXadi (brunei)

txescu (catalunia)

txescu (catalunia)

txescu (catalunia)

'conejo.Blanco' by alberto portacio (colombia)

alberto portacio (colombia)

frits jonker (holland)

luthfi sidik (indonesia)

luthfi sidik (indonesia)

diego colombo (italy)

diego colombo (italy)

jeremy loh (malaysia)

serpiente (mexico)

serpiente (mexico)

nagfa (singapore)

nagfa (singapore)

nagfa (singapore)

nagfa (singapore)

praxides (spain)

dan schmidt (usa)

dan schmidt (usa)

jennifer (usa)

scalpod (usa)

scalpod (usa)

nagfa's ambigram challenge (NAC) Dec 2007

Salam.
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As 2007 comes into its last stretch - and we see ourselves struggling to fulfil earlier resolutions (what resolutions? were there..? did I..? some ask) and thinking of more (self-consoling) reasons and excuses why we could not - we welcome a new format to nagfa's ambigram challenge (NAC). nagfa - naguib and fadilah - hopes that 2008 will bring a freshness to NAC unlike those we've had so far. Beginning from this instalment of NAC December 2007, we would like to revamp it into something more viewers/participants-centric.

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What we are planning is each NAC next year will be posed by a Guest Challenger. These Guest Challengers would be artists (us included) whose solution were chosen by a prior Guest Challenger who posed his own phrase/word/theme. There will be no voting, but comments and critiques are always welcomed.

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Without extending this pre-amble, nagfa proudly presents the Guest Challenger for NAC December 2007: Homero Larrain from Chile, whose solution for NAC November 2007 was voted the winner by a majority of voters.

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"I'm Homero Larrain, a 26 years old engineer / university teacher from Santiago, Chile. As a fan of maths, puzzles and wordplay, it was a rather natural thing for me first to be amazed by ambigrams, and then to start trying to design my own ones. I've been making them for three years now, and in my blog I've posted approximately 220 of them during the last two years. I have no formal training in graphics design or typography, but in the last two years I've been continuously trying to learn through tutorials I've found on the Internet, and keeping track of every ambigram site I'm aware of, in order to learn new tricks from other artists and their different syles and approaches."

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This month's phrase: white rabbit

*After giving it a lot of thought, the phrase I'm proposing for this month's competition is "white rabbit". The concept references the character from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" . This is a tribute for one of the writers that inspired many of us the love for wordplay, and that certainly would be a fan of ambigrams if he was still alive.

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"White rabbit" is also often used in popular culture to symbolize something that you are chasing but you can't get. Technically, the phrase presents many challenges (ie, the double "b"), but I've learned that these difficulties are a good thing for a NAC because they promote creativity and this way the solutions found by different ambigramists present a variety of approaches and new ideas.

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Please submit designs to:
nagfa_ambigram@hotmail.com
hopefully before 25nd of December (for allowance for us to compile them before January). 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.
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All the best,

Salam,
Nagfa: Naguib & Fadilah
Singapore