turning the world upside down
A new version of my “Good & Evil” ambigram (you can see an older version here). I created this design as a submission for the “Ambigrams Revealed” project, but didn’t submit it since I’m not too happy with its legibility. I DO like the overall look, but I really have to find a way to make it easier to read…
I’ve been contacted by the talented Darren Bent, who asked me if I could show some of his work on this webpage. After looking at samples of his work, I had no other choice than to answer: YES, YES, YES!
Darren has been designing graffiti-style symmetric typography since 2004, before he ever heard of John Langdon, his work on “Angels and Demons” or ambigrams in general, naming them Magigrapix (Magic Graffiti Pictures). Quote Darren:
“The artwork came to me naturally, which by the way is if you hadn’t noticed is the ability to make one word read as another upside-down. Now after a number of years of practice and studying other ambigramists, I can make almost any word read as another upside-down.”
So, here are some examples of his work:
“Aotearoa / New Zealand”
“Jesus Christ, Son of God / Jesus Christ Lamb of God” – Can you find the fish symbol hidden in the image?
“Game Over / The End”
“Above / Below” – This is my personal favorite from this selection. It’s easy to read and the perspective underlines the meanings of the words. Great work, Darren!
Right now Darren is working on something special… stay tuned.
About a year ago Mike asked me do create a design for a second ambigram-tattoo reading “Life Is Pain”, which should match the style of the “Always In My Heart” ambigram I did for him some time ago. Well, it took some time, but he finally got the ink done and send me some pictures.
Here is my original design:
The solution for this ambigram is very natural, I really didn’t have to do much…
And here is the final tattoo:
The other day Vanessa asked me to do an ambigram of the name “Zeke”, because she was dissatisfied with the results the ambigram generator delivered. I came came up with this solution pretty quickly:
She liked it 🙂
Still one of the best. TV. series. ever.
UPDATE: Whoops, I just saw that Michael Irving came up with an almost identical solution two years ago. You can see it here.
Some time ago, I got an e-mail from Tim, who asked me to create an ambigram design for a tattoo. He wanted it to contain the names of his son Canon and his daughter Vanna and here’s what I came up with:
It’s been quite some time since I took part in an ACAC (ambigram.com ambigram challenge), but this time I was tempted again. It was quite an elaborate challenge with seven different categories (read all about it here) and I submitted three different designs for three different categories – and they all won!
So here are the ambigrams:
Number 1: “Dan Chan”, rotational ambigram
This one was quite easy because I could build upon an older design of mine, but I like it very much for its readability.
Number 2: “Amazing Grace”, rotational ambigram
It took some time until I came up with the “z/G” solution, but after that it all came naturally. I’m very happy for the consistent style, especially the lower case “a”s.
Number 3: “Bian Lian”, rotational ambigram
My favorite. “Bian Lian” is the ancient chinese art of quick face/mask changing and I wanted to incorporate that into the design. I made a color version first, but the black and white version is much better from a graphical point of view.
Well, except for the ears…
A friend of mine is a HUGE fan of the song “Wipeout” and all its derivates and she asked me to create an ambigram for her:
The “o/p” combination was rather tricky but all in all I’m, very pleased with the flowing look of the ambigram.
Hi Everybody!
It’s almost half a year again since my last post – unbelievable! The good news is that I’m pretty busy creating ambigrams again, so hopefully there’s an end to the lazy blogging 😉
Well, looking back it seems that I’m writing something like this not for the first time…
Anyway, after doing some new ambigrams (soon to come) I was checking my ambigram folder and realized that there’s a good handful of ambigrams I didn’t post here. So before I’ll put my new stuff up here, I’m going to clean out my attic first. Here’s a design I did in September 2011, after receiving a request for an estimate for a commission. I didn’t get the commission but created the ambigram anyway…
unterart ambigram design 