Ambigram Couples Ring Challenge
Aug 7th, 2010 | By Editor | Category: A.C.A.C., NewsAfter the judging was complete for the ‘Ambigram Couples Ring‘ challenge, we found out that the winning design had a very special back story.
The winning design says “Wilfred” upright and “Cynthia” upside-down. Wilfred and Cynthia are the winning artist’s cousin and his wife, and they still don’t have wedding rings after several years of marriage. Well, they will now!
The back story had nothing to do with the judging, but its great to know that the rings will be used for a very good cause. No married couple should go without wedding rings, and these ambigram rings will be a couple of the coolest wedding rings around!
The Results
[NOTE: All designs are copyrighted by the respective artists. We have permission to post them here, but you must get permission from the artist for any other use of their design, or to post them elsewhere.]
1. Rebecca May – http://sites.google.com/site/ambigramgreetings/nameart
Cynthia Wilfred - Ambigram Ring Winner!
This is a classy, highly readable and apparently simple ambigram, but anyone who creates ambigrams knows that creating one that appears simple is anything but! The ‘nt’ to ‘fr’ combination must have been particularly tricky, but within the context of this design, it comes together quite nicely. Congratulations, Rebecca! Please wish your cousin and his wife our best. Your rings (one of which is shown here in an actual photo) are on their way.
2. Alessandro Pocaterra – http://picasaweb.google.it/alepoc69/Ambigrams?feat=directlink
Emily Frida Ambigram
This ambigram placed highly in the contest probably due to its simplicity and ease of turning into a reproduced design on an ambigram ring (Cascadia Design Studio, the manufacturer of the winning ambigram ring was one of the judges for this round). This is one of the few submissions we received that had no tapering of the lines to form the design. It is possible that with more traditional typographic elements, this could have claimed first place, as the solution itself of the artist’s daughter’s name is quite good.
3. Clayton Mabey – www.CustomAmbigrams.com
Libby Clayton Ambigram
Clayton Mabey submitted this design of himself (Clayton) and his wife (Libby) of 15 years. He claims to have married her before he knew that he could create an ambigram of their names, but if you ask me, ambigram name compatibility should be one of the primary considerations of matrimony. 
4. Ihsan Ekaputra – http://aikambigram18.blogspot.com
eik nia ambigram
This design uses a great deal of typographic acrobatics to pull off this EIK / NIA ambigram, which is the nickname of the author flipping over to become his wife’s name. The Yin/Yang symbol at the point where the dots on the i’s meet is a nice touch.
5. Michael Irving – http://michaelirvingambigrams.blogspot.com/
Robert Emily Katie James
One of the most consistent top-5 finishers in the ambigram challenges is Michael Irving, and this challenge is no exception. I’m not exactly sure how we would have put this design onto a ring if Michael would have won, but it looks like putting an ambigram on the front, and another on the back would have done the job. The artist didn’t mention who the people are in the ambigram, but since there are 4 of them, I assume that they are someone’s kids (Robert, feel free to comment below to let us know).
The Results
Some other designs that we thought were excellent:
Cleber Faria – Cleber/Dayane Ambigram
Cleber Dayane Ambigram
Imriaylde – Jacob/Jen Ambigram
Jacob&Jen Ambigram
Kai Hammond – Multilingual Kai/家进 ambigram (Kai in Chinese)
Kai - 家进 Ambigram
Thanks to everyone who submitted a design for this challenge. Keep up the good work!
We will be announcing the next challenge shortly…
[...] http://www.ambigram.com/ambigram-couples-ring-challenge [...]
Umm… just a question, was the site infected for a few days? By a malware?
@ Rebecca, just one word- beautiful!
@Zoner yes, but that’s fixed now, see Marks reply on the ring challenge page
can’t wait for the next challenge
I’m quite determined to take part
How is the First Prize Winner an Ambigram?
I have to say that both Cynthia and I were excited to hear that Rebecca’s design won the contest. She worked really hard on this design and I was honored that she chose to use our names in the competition. We just had to order 2 rings whether she won or lost, but we’re happy that she did win. They are very comfortable to wear and we are both proud of her work. She deserves the accolades that she gets for her work.
Congrats again, Rebecca.
@Edward, the challenge was to create a symbiotogram, which is a form of ambigram. A symbiotogram is a word or name that turns to something completely different.
I thing the winning ambigram was very creative. Great work, Rebecca!!!
Clayton Mabey
@ Silver: Thank you!
@ Edward: When turned “up side down” — rotated 180 degrees — you will see the name Wilfred instead of the name Cynthia. This, as described by Clayton, is called a symbiotogram, wherein one word or name becomes another. You can see both views in plain black and white on my News and Announcements Page. (Click my name for the web page.)
@ Wilfred: Thanks and You’re Welcome, to both you and Cynthia.
I was glad to do it.
First of all a BRAVO to the winner. Worth the ring.
Then a note about the comment on my proposal, just to explain why it is so “simple”.
Since 1982 (after the Scientific American’s article about Scott Kim’s inversions) I’m an irregular ambigram’s fan. Yes, the truth is sad: I’m 41 y.o. and some of you partecipants were not even born then
Since then my technique simplified a lot. The first ones were “spaghetti” drawings almost unreadable. Taking it down to the very basic (I’m a programmer, so the rule KEEP IT SIMPLE is a must) now I can almost only accept very linear ones. Less frills mean that the game is more interessant. Some ambigrams around are like wall graffiti: wonderful works of art, but unreadable. Are they worth?
When I devised this it was to create a no-frill symbio that everyone would have been able to read. No frills because I simply don’t like the fraktur-type that’s so fashon among youngsters
I believe that fraktur font and similar are often a shortcut, easy as they are to manipulate with frills. Not to offend anybody, be intended: I’m just out of fashion!
A ring with more frills would have possibly won, but I wouldn’t have liked it. So it was better like this.
Thank you anyway for the glorious silver medal.
Just for history, I made an ambigrammatic real USB keyboard (patent pending): http://www.videotec.com/en/page_617.html
The original name I proposed was NINE or NOVE (my 9th keyboard, the second mean 9 in Italian) and the logos I devised were also ambigramable, but for marketing reasons it has been changed to a plane DCZ.
It can be turned 180 degrees to be used by right and left-handed people, to swap joystick and jog shuttle positions. Just to show that ambigrams HAVE an utility, not only t-shirts and tattoos!
Thank you everybody and have a wonderful day
Alessandro
new challenge ????????????
yes, we all need a new challenge! 2 challenges in nearly 4-5 month is not satisfying
if you need a theme, ask the community! come up with stuff like mysticals, sports, hobbys, quotes …. … … … … … … … … .. … .. … …